British Airways' Boeing 747-400s, which are on average 20 years old, have been given a new lease of life, offering the same standards of comfort as the airline's Airbus A380s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners. "The iconic Boeing 747 remains an important part of our fleet, loved by many of our customers."said Troy Warfield, Director of Customer Experience at British Airways.
This cabin refurbishment involved 18 B747s and included the installation of additional seat-beds (16 per aircraft) in Club World, new Panasonic video screens offering more than 130 films and 400 TV programmes. The screens, which are larger and higher resolution, also offer handling similar to that of a digital tablet,
In traditional and premium economy class, the seats have been refurbished with new cushions and covers. Each seat in World Traveller Plus has a multi-standard socket for plugging in computers and tablets, while each seat in World Traveller has a USB socket. The cabin also benefits from new ambient lighting.
The redesigned 747s are in service on flights between London Heathrow and New York JFK, Chicago, Johannesburg, Dubai, Boston, Riyadh, Kuwait, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Washington. British Airways now has a fleet of 142 long-haul and 143 medium-haul aircraft serving almost 200 destinations. British Airways still has a fleet of 39 Boeing 747-400s in service, down by more than a third since the beginning of the decade.
The airline will also be expanding its Middle East network this winter, offering non-stop flights between London Heathrow and Doha (eliminating the stopover in Bahrain) and between Heathrow and Muscat (eliminating the stopover in Abu Dhabi). British Airways will offer a daily non-stop flight to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Doha and five weekly flights to Oman from the IATA winter timetable at the end of October.
