This week saw British Airways host an event in London to present a wave of improvements to the passenger experience costing the carrier no less than £7bn over the coming years. Now usually this would be seen as a series of individual stories, but as a collective, the overarching impression is that the airline is strategically looking to invest in passenger experience areas where its needed most.
At the heart of the improvements is a new seat and cabin for the short haul fleet. The new short-haul seats and cabin interiors will feature on the next generation of British Airways’ Airbus A320neo and A321neos, with eight aircraft set to arrive from May this year. The airline is working with the best of British suppliers from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with the new short-haul Euro Traveller and Club Europe seats reflecting a modern yet classic British interior. The re-designed cabins will also be fitted with extra-large bins for overhead luggage.
Interestingly the cabins feature a herringbone pattern, which is actually part of the previous design language. It used to feature on a range of soft and hard products through the passenger experience, and had been phased out somewhat, but this is a bold return of the herringbone, with a colour palette that reflects the somewhat challenging uniforms, that wouldn’t look out of place in Metrobank.
The airline has kept the middle tray table in Club Europe (Business Class) although our preference would be for them to remove this, as for those travelling together it’s more restrictive, and the centre tray table would suffice just as well.
It’s not just cabins though. The airline is seeking to improve its tired and often crowded Heathrow lounges. While there have been a few refreshes over the year, a much needed overhaul couldn’t come sooner, although the lounge refresh has been slated to last no less than 5 years, starting with Heathrow’s arrival lounge.
Meanwhile BA also announced that it is set to open another brand-new lounge, this time in Dubai, which is relocating to a new larger space at Dubai Airport later this year. This lounge will be the first to feature British Airways’ new lounge design concept, followed by the opening of its Miami lounge in 2025 and refresh of it’s Edinburgh, Seattle and Lagos lounges as well.
As well as also announcing the return of Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to the route map, the airline has also announced its wide-body will see some love. And there’s no wider than the A380, which will see a brand-new and exclusive First suite. The airline expects the new seat to make its debut at the end of 2025 into early 2026 as part of its A380 aircraft refurbishment.
And lastly, no matter which cabin class you fly in, all Wi-Fi enabled planes within the fleet will offer free messaging from April.
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