Given that 
British Airways
does not plan to operate the Airbus A380 to Boston or Dallas/Fort Worth next summer (this might change), I wondered how its network would adapt. Now we have more information.
In addition to extending Singapore A380 flights until May 31, 2025, the superjumbo will be flown on both BA’s double daily Johannesburg services from June 1. It last had that frequency on the double-decker in summer 2023. It came shortly after both Emirates revealed it would reinstate its fourth daily Dubai-Johannesburg flight and Qantas inaugurated A380 flights to South Africa.
BA doubles A380 Johannesburg flights
Until the weekend’s schedule update for summer 2025, the oneworld member had intended to use two aircraft types to the South African city. Alongside a daily service on the 469-seat A380, a daily flight on the 216-seat Boeing 787-9 was also scheduled. The latest plan shows that the superjumbo will operate all flights from June 1.
Photo: Jonathan Hendry | Shutterstock
An additional 506 seats are for sale each day
The shift to all-A380 means daily roundtrip seats for sale will rise by 1,876 (+37%). Obviously, the additional capacity will mainly be in economy class, with 352 more seats for sale each day (+41%). There will also be 110 more business seats daily (+40%), 32 more in premium economy (+17%), and 12 more for sale in first class (27%).
What is the schedule?
In June 2025, BA will operate as follows, with all times local. Until last week, the 787-9 was to operate BA55 outbound and BA54 inbound. It will now be redeployed.
|
Flights from Heathrow |
Flights to Heathrow |
|---|---|
|
BA55, 19:05-07:15+1 (daily) |
BA56, 19:20-05:30+1 (daily) |
|
BA57, 21:25-09:25+1 (daily) |
BA54, 21:05-07:25+1 (daily) |
BA’s June 2025 A380 plan (for now)
While the schedule will almost certainly change, BA’s current plan for June 2025, as of September 30, indicates that the double-decker quadjet will be used to the following destinations. Six daily take-offs and five routes are planned from Heathrow.
- Johannesburg: double daily
- Los Angeles: daily
- Miami: daily
- San Francisco: daily
- Washington Dulles: daily
Image: GCMap
The plan is not finalized: summer 2024 had eight daily departures (eight routes) and summer 2023 had eight/nine daily take-offs (eight routes). While the average stage length has risen from 3,934 nautical miles (7,286 km) in summer 2023 to 4,367 nautical miles (8,088 km) planned next summer, stay tuned for more changes.
Where Johannesburg passengers go
Booking data for the year to July 2024 shows that BA carried more point-to-point passengers (those who traveled only between the two cities) than anywhere else. That’s no surprise. When all airlines were included, the local London-Johannesburg market had a considerable volume of around 380,000 roundtrip point-to-point passengers.
An estimated 170,000 BA passengers connected to another flight at Heathrow (see below). Despite the cessation of BA-franchised Comair, more than 60,000 people flew elsewhere in South Africa, having connected in Johannesburg. Durban was number one (BA served it non-stop from Heathrow until 2020), and Port Elizabeth was second.
Photo: K.G. Yon | Shutterstock
Approximately half of BA’s connecting passengers over Heathrow continued to the US and domestic UK destinations, followed by Ireland; Heathrow is obviously well-positioned geographically for these markets.
Germany was the fourth-largest country market, followed by France, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. Some markets required a lot of backtracking, counterbalanced by BA’s good frequency and often attractive fares via Heathrow.
At the city level, the most popular Johannesburg origins and destinations were:
- New York City (via Heathrow)
- Dublin
- Manchester
- Brussels
- Amsterdam
- Paris
- Los Angeles
- Copenhagen
- Boston
- Milan