British Airways has released the latest set of changes to its 2023/2024 intercontinental winter schedule.
Most of the changes include a reshuffle of aircraft being used on a wide range of its intercontinental routes.
Although there isn’t much of an explanation for why such changes have occurred, one could certainly base it off overall demand on each route fluctuating over time, forcing the airline to make changes.
The changes were released by BA on the 11th of May and AeroRoutes reports that 30 intercontinental routes have seen changes.
Routes include those to all other continents BA flies to which are North America, South America, Africa, The Middle East, Asia and South East Asia and also Oceania.
British Airways schedule changes
In this post we will address the most significant changes in each region. For the full list of changes, you can visit Aeroroutes to find all of the aircraft changes and routes affected.
It is also worth noting that with the beginning of the winter season still around 5 and a half months away, more changes are more than likely to happen, so this will not be the final schedule.
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North America
With that said, we will take a look at the most significant changes in North America. The first notable change is Boston, with the A380 due to fly on select days of the week.
Although this change isn’t part of the latest update, it is intriguing to see the change has remained, showing demand for the route remains at an unusual high for the time of year.
The reason we say unusual, is because for as long as we can remember, the A380 at Boston has only been a summer seasonal operation.
Sticking with the A380, Chicago has seen a reduction in use from the type over the winter season. Unlike Boston, Chicago is a year round A380 route.
According to AeroRoutes, the A380 is only tipped to operate from the 29 October to the 12 December with what appears to be the A350 taking over for the rest of the season.
One of British Airways’ latest routes also appears to be doing particularly well, with the Cincinnati route seeing a capacity increase from the 787-8 to the 777-200ER.
This Winter will also be first winter season that Denver sees the A350-1000, with the type due to start from the 14 September according to AeroRoutes data.
Other significant changes in other regions
Looking out to the rest of the world, there are some unique changes currently filed for the winter. These changes mostly consist of aircraft types making their first visit to the destination.
Starting off, it would appear BA’s route to Delhi will see the A350-1000 used on the route for the first time from the 1 December to 30 March 2024.
Another interesting change noticed in the latest update is the Lagos route seeing the 787-10 for the first time
Continuing with first time aircraft use on routes, the 787-10 also appears to be making its debut on the Riyadh route, a welcome change for travellers with the 777-200/300 being used on the route continuously for the past few years.
Moving away from first time uses, we turn to Hong Kong, which pre-covid used to see a double daily flight from an A380 and 777-300ER.
However, it seems demand is not growing back at such a fast rate, with the 787-8/9 and only a single daily flight planned for this winter.
Furthermore the same can be said with the flag carrier’s Singapore route, which used to see a daily A380 flight terminating at SIN and a daily 777-300ER that would continue on to Sydney.
The 777 part of the route will be making a return this winter, although no sight of the second daily A380 flight in sight yet.
Summary
Overall, British Airways has made a wide range of changes to its winter schedule in this latest update.
However, it is always worth remembering that these changes are likely not solidified and further changes are likely to occur.
But despite this, if you are booking on an intercontinental flight with BA this winter with a vision to try a new aircraft type, you will likely be notified in good time about such a change.
