British Airways cutting flights to Australia by 5% in the winter; London-Sydney service to be affected

British Airways, the national flag-carrier airline of the United Kingdom, has announced that it is cutting its capacity to Australia by 5% by reducing a few flights during the northern winter.

At present, British Airways, the joint venture partner of Australia’s national airline Qantas Airways, operates two flights a day between London and Sydney.
The frequency will be reduced to one flight daily on some days in the winter season from two fights a day.

On the London-Sydney route, British Airways now uses a Boeing 747 aircraft on one service and a Boeing 777 plane on the other.

Sam Heine, British Airways’ regional commercial manager for the south-west Pacific region, said in a statement that British Airways will replace the Boeing 777 plane with a Boeing 747.

The additional Boeing 747 aircraft, according to Heine, will be used for flying on the British Airways’ BA15/16 flight to Heathrow Airport via Singapore.
British Airways, he explained, is cutting overall capacity on the airline’s network for winter by 5%, which will have “some effect” on the Heathrow-Sydney route. The company is taking a few weeks out of the winter schedule in order to match capacity with demand since it is aiming at multi-frequency routes, Heine added.

However, reduction in the frequency of flights will be offset by the use of the bigger Boeing 747 aircraft on the second daily service during the peak-travel months of December and January. This will give passengers more choice during the peak periods and ensure that business-class passengers will get British Airways’ new Club World product, the statement said.

It may be noted that British Airways had initially planed to cut capacity by 4% but later pushed the figure up to 5% owing to continuing low demand for air travel – including the drop in premium-class traffic for 10 months in a row.
So far, British Airways has grounded 16 planes and is considering dismissing nearly 4,000 of its employees.

In Australia, British Airways has a joint services agreement (JSA) with Qantas Airways, leading to British Airways operating fewer aircraft in Australia in favour of codesharing with Qantas.

Sam Heine stressed in the statement that British Airways “remained 100% committed to the Australian market” and that the joint services agreement allowed British Airways to offer its customers more choices than it did earlier.