While there are still more questions than answers, there’s an exciting update regarding the future of British Airways’ Airbus A380s.
In this post:
British Airways A380s getting new first & business class
At the start of the pandemic, British Airways grounded its Airbus A380 fleet, as several airlines did. Fortunately in late 2021, the airline brought back these planes, and all signs point toward the whale jet staying in British Airways’ fleet for years to come.
The catch is that at this point British Airways’ A380 interiors are quite outdated. British Airways has introduced its new Club Suites business class in recent years, but up until now there hasn’t really been much of an indication of if/when A380s will get these cabins.
As flagged by Head for Points, The Sunday Times had an interview with British Airways CEO Sean Doyle, which contains some tidbits about the future of the A380. Here’s what the story states:
Hundreds of millions of pounds will be spent refitting BA’s 12 A380 double-decker superjumbos. This is an aircraft so popular with passengers that most airlines make it their flagship — but, under Cruz, it became BA’s most dated jet. It will have a new first class — perhaps on the upper deck for the first time — the popular new business-class Club Suite, also upstairs, and new premium economy and economy cabins.
As you can see, British Airways plans to reconfigure its entire A380 fleet with new cabins. Most significantly, British Airways’ A380s will get the carrier’s Club Suites business class, plus a new first class.
There had been speculation that British Airways would refresh the cabins on its A380s, but not much official, so this is a positive development. The big question now is the timeline with which A380s will be reconfigured:
- On the one hand, I can’t imagine it will be anytime soon; British Airways is currently finishing up reconfiguring Boeing 777s, and then the plan is to reconfigure Boeing 787s, so I would think A380s would only be reconfigured after that’s complete
- On the other hand, if British Airways only reconfigures A380s in 2025 and beyond (for example), for how many years can these planes with new cabins really remain service, and how does the airline make the economics of that work, since you have to amortize that investment over a lot of flights for it to make sense?
What can we expect from British Airways’ A380 cabin upgrades?
British Airways currently has one of the most unusual A380 layouts of any airline, as the A380 has business class, premium economy, and economy on the upper deck, and first class, business class, and economy on the lower deck. There’s not another airline that has three different classes of service on each A380 deck. You’d think that’s not terribly efficient, so I’m curious how this could be reconfigured.
I think it goes without saying that the most exciting update to British Airways’ A380s will be the introduction of Club Suites, British Airways’ excellent new business class.This will represent a huge improvement over the current business class.
My guess is that British Airways will consolidate this business class on one deck, probably the upper deck. Admittedly the upper deck is narrower than the lower deck, so this could be a bit of a tight squeeze, but it should be manageable.
The other big question is what kind of a first class product British Airways will introduce on the A380, and what it will be like. We’re seeing mention of a new first class, though it’s anyone’s guess if that actually means a fully new first class product, or simply some version of British Airways’ current “new” first class, which is essentially the old first class but with a door.
We know that British Airways was planning a reimagined first class product on the Boeing 777X. Those planes were already supposed to be in British Airways’ fleet, but the plane will now enter service in 2025 at the earliest. Could we see that new product on A380s as well, or is that a little too revolutionary for British Airways for the time being?
Bottom line
British Airways plans to update its Airbus A380 cabins. That’s exciting in terms of knowing that these planes will be around for years to come. It’s less exciting that we don’t yet know the timeline with which A380s will be reconfigured.
We can expect British Airways A380s to eventually get Club Suites, as well as a “new” first class. It remains to be seen if that new first class is the same that the airline has on updated 777s, or if we could actually see a major improvement.
What are you expecting from British Airways’ A380 retrofits?
"British Airways’ excellent new business class"...sorry Ben...not going to agree with you on this. Seems kind of average to me with some annoying features (let's talk about those tricky doors). Anything is an improvement though over their last international business class (which is still their current business class for all flights out of Gatwick).
Let's save the discussion around their European Business Class seats for another day ;-)
Glad to see a refurb is coming to the BA A380s. Maybe they will queue them up before the 787s.
Ba needs to get back on the page for premium travel. As a gold member I dispair at how far they have dropped in class.
Just flown BA A380 in business class a few days ago... old product but still pretty fresh imo. And Do&Co catering back in full swing!
Just flown on a BA flight in a 777 from Heathrow to Cape Town in Economy. One of my worse flying experiences - the seats are so tightly packed in with virtually no room to move. I sincerely hope BA doesn't replicate this configuration in their 380 upgrade.
True for Economy. I remember making the mistake of taking BA Econ almost 10 years ago for the "short hop" on the A380 between SIN and MEL. Lucky for me, the rest of the trip (which had been booked in advance) was business class.
I guess thinner seats helps increase the legroom.
I think it will be all Business Class Upper Deck (1-2-1 Club Suites), First remains on Lower Deck and Premium Economy moved downstairs where Club is.
One thing that isn't well talked about is that this retrofit will most certainly mean the end of the delightful BA economy mini-cabin on the A380 upper deck which was in a quite comfortable 2-4-2 configuration with large storage bins on the side of the window seats.
Very happy to hear that. The A380 retrofit can't come soon enough given that BA flies them on premium routes like LHR-LAX, LHR-SFO, or LAX-ORD that deserve better than that rubbish business class seat. I hope BA actually takes advantage of the extra space the A380 provides this time and adds a lounge area or something just like most airlines that fly the A380. Knowing BA, though, I doubt that's going to happen.
Most airlines that fly (or flew) the A380 didn't have lounges. Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, and Korean were the only ones that did/do. That's only 4 out of 15 airlines that are or did operate the A380.
Qantas also has a lounge area at the front of the upper deck (which remains underused).
But I agree with your point, lounges on the A380 are not essential and only Emirates has really made it work as part of their A380 product.
True, but if I had to choose, I would say I like Qatar's bar more than Emirates'.
Julia, I think on Korean that it is a shop rather than a lounge. I flew a couple of times on Air France a380, and they had a nice art gallery at the upper deck front but it was sadly very under utilised as they had first class downstairs, so it was basically wasted space and few used it. A bar or Virgin Atlantic/Qantas type social lounge space could easily have been created.
It's a lounge on Korean.
Julia, I think on Korean that it is a shop rather than a lounge. I flew a couple of times on Air France a380, and they had a nice art gallery at the upper deck front but it was sadly very under utilised as they had first class downstairs, so it was basically wasted space and few used it.
A bar/cafe area or Virgin Atlantic/Qantas type social lounge space could easily have been created.
Since these planes make more sense on high-demand routes like NY or LA, I'd think retrofitting the A380s is a higher priority than the B787s, which are more used on thin long routes like Austin or San Diego where there is no competition flying direct to Europe and they can get away with a subpar cabin.
I agree with everything you said except for one thing. The BA A380 doesn't make sense in NY because Terminal 8 (and previously Terminal 7) where BA flies to in JFK does not have any gates that can fit an A380 and they decided it wasn't worth the expense or trouble to renovate a gate to fit one. Naturally, in the New York market, BA prefer greater frequencies on aircraft like the 777 (and formerly...
I agree with everything you said except for one thing. The BA A380 doesn't make sense in NY because Terminal 8 (and previously Terminal 7) where BA flies to in JFK does not have any gates that can fit an A380 and they decided it wasn't worth the expense or trouble to renovate a gate to fit one. Naturally, in the New York market, BA prefer greater frequencies on aircraft like the 777 (and formerly the 747 as well). I don't think EWR-LHR can support an A380 because EWR is not a Oneworld hub nor does it have close to the massive amount of infrastructure BA has at JFK. It does sound a bit counterintuitive given that it's essentially BA's flagship route and I wish they would find some kind of solution to allow BA to fly the A380 to JFK.
I bet economy will end up mpre crowded and uncomfortable. Right now, it's pretty decent product with storage boxes by the windows.
Retrofitting most aircrafts now means better premium product, more crowded economy, thinner seats, etc.
I agree with you on the thinner seats (BA's A350's and retrofitted 777's have a noticeably thinner seat in Y), but I don't think the storage bins will go away. AFAIK they're a standard feature of the A380's upper deck.
Let's refit the Titanic at the same time
BA got their A380s late in production. They are stlll young.
If they refurbish their first cabin they need to vastly improve the washrooms. The worst and smallest first class washrooms.
BA are retro fitting 777s that are over 25 years old so I don't see an issue with retro fitting the A380s ... I would guess 8 first suites ...
These are the filthiest aircraft in the sky. They should be grounded and refitted before anything else.
And what is the basis for your comment? How many other airlines/A380s have you flown on?
The filthiest aircraft in the sky WERE BA' "Openskies" 757s between Paris and New York, ORY to JFK.. They are thankfully gone.
I've no source for this info, but I've always understood that the unusual layout of BA's A380s was not driven by efficiency, but rather by accessibility. Having Club World cabins on both decks reduces the chances of a passenger in J with reduced mobility having to board or deplane via the internal staircase at an outpost lacking an upper deck jet bridge. If memory serves, the same was true for their 747s, and J passengers...
I've no source for this info, but I've always understood that the unusual layout of BA's A380s was not driven by efficiency, but rather by accessibility. Having Club World cabins on both decks reduces the chances of a passenger in J with reduced mobility having to board or deplane via the internal staircase at an outpost lacking an upper deck jet bridge. If memory serves, the same was true for their 747s, and J passengers could be accommodated on either deck. Right now, only World Traveller + is solely upstairs on the A380s, and I'd guess that if BA choose to retrofit them in a different layout then this hasn't been a significant issue since 2013!
This doesn't really stand up to any kind of scrutiny:
1. The efficiency losses over the lifetime of this plane being in service would vastly outweigh any potential "gains" (can't think of any net benefits besides customer goodwill?). Simply put, this would cost them a lot more.
2. Other carriers did not have this setup and we haven't heard horror stories from them.
3. I am genuinely ignorant here, but don't most...
This doesn't really stand up to any kind of scrutiny:
1. The efficiency losses over the lifetime of this plane being in service would vastly outweigh any potential "gains" (can't think of any net benefits besides customer goodwill?). Simply put, this would cost them a lot more.
2. Other carriers did not have this setup and we haven't heard horror stories from them.
3. I am genuinely ignorant here, but don't most limited mobility passengers have to wait until end of boarding anyways for assistance? So not sure going down the stairs would really make a big impact.
I'm not saying there isn't a reason for this setup, but I think you're just repeating a housewives tale.
Ben, what routes does BA use the A380 on?
BOS, IAD, MIA, ORD, DFW, LAX, and ORD
Also still in use on SFO (frustratingly)
Second ORD should have been SFO. Thanks for catching that.
And JNB.
MIA is seasonal...
Miami is not seasonal One daily year round including right now and 2 of the big boys in winter
In the summer 2024 schedule the two flights are going to be operated by a 777 and a 787.
BA need to get the reliability of the A380 sorted first - no point in having a refurbished aircraft if it can't get off the ground.
It better not be seasonal, I'm booked on one in October!
And SFO.