British Airways to add new trans-atlantic Business Class flight

According to the New York Times today, BA is planning to add a new, twice-daily business class route between London City Airport and either Kennedy or Newark.

The catch? London City Airport has a weight limit taking off. Which means on the way back to the States there’going to be a 40-minute stopover in Ireland to fuel up for the long haul. Not so nice.

The article has some interesting analysis of the placement and pricing of the new flight:

Two other things struck me as remarkable about the plan by British Airways, which already flies eight times a day between Kennedy and London Heathrow and three times a day between Newark and Heathrow.

One is the location: London City Airport. London City, which does not now have trans-Atlantic service, is six miles from the financial district and three miles from Canary Wharf, both home to rapidly growing international businesses.

Two is the audacity of the initial pricing. In recent years, three start-up all-business-class carriers — Eos and Silverjet (along with MaxJet, which is now defunct) — began offering New York-to-London business-class fares that were considerably lower than the major carriers. According to Mr. Harford, the new British Airways business-class service will charge the same as its existing business-class service, known as Club World, between New York and Heathrow.

In other words: this is where BA thinks there’s going to be international business growth, and BA thinks the demand for business class flights to London City is going to be inelastic. Given the recent trend towards low-cost, high-frequency airline flights, they could be betting the wrong way.

But crossing the Atlantic in style? That still has to be worth some dough.