British Airways just celebrated its centenary year and as part of its new year’s resolutions (Happy New Year everyone!) the carrier has hinted at some much needed upgrades to its Heathrow lounge complexes.
2019 saw the carrier bring a host of new lounge designs to its network including San Francisco, Geneva, New York and Milan. Most of these lounges feature a contemporary muted colour scheme, swathes of light wooden slatted walls and marble tables and signature focal bars.
While most of the lounges have a similar design aesthetic Milan stands out as a lounge more similar to the carrier’s Heathrow concept with Paisley print still a part of the design language, so its unclear which approach the carrier will take with its Heathrow Terminal 5 Galleries spaces.
However, as these are British Airways’ flagship lounges – which are now almost 12 years old – we would expect to see a major overhaul rather than a superficial upgrade to the spaces. Most likely seeing each one of the Galleries lounges closed at a time to ensure minimal impact on their current operation.
What would we like to see? Considering the airline has a lot of global competition which include a la carte dining with the likes of Etihad’s lounges and Virgin Atlantic or signature live cooking stations like Malaysia or Cathay Pacific. The airline also needs to have fully staffed bars, like Qantas or Virgin Atlantic just to be able to keep up with competition. But we’d love to see more than this, something that takes these lounges from a simple sea of seating and basic dining options to a space that represents British Airways’ upgraded passenger experience pre-flight.
We should also see Heathrow’s Elemis Spa have yet another overhaul, as the airline has announced it will be re-designed and re-launched in their JFK lounge.
It’s not just Heathrow seeing the love. The airline has announced that this year will also see Edinburgh and Berlin see newly upgraded lounges too.
Although details are scarce, the chances of something special happening in Heathrow could be quite high, as the airline has also announced the addition of ‘Concorde teams’ to look after their British Airways Premier Card and Gold Guest List Executive Club members in Los Angeles, New York JFK, London Heathrow, Delhi, Los Angeles and Mumbai.
We welcome this news, as it shows the airline is continuing to invest in to the passenger experience. With the new Club Suites, upgraded food and dining, amenities on board and soon to be revealed Ozwald Boateng uniforms – it seems British Airways is bringing itself back up to an international standard, being able to compete once more with the more luxurious carriers in the skies.
TheDesignAir 