Celebrating a Centenary, British Airways Looks Back on an Investment Packed 12-Months Including a Royal Visit, New Aircraft, New Routes and Improvements in Customer Service

As 2019 draws to a close and we look forward to Christmas, British Airways is celebrating 19 reasons 2019 was fab-yule-ous. 

1. 2019 was the year British Airways celebrated its centenary with a visit from Her Majesty the Queen and four heritage livery aircraft. Read more here and here.  

1. A dozen new modern and fuel-efficient aircraft arrived, including A350s which emit up to 40% less carbon than the aircraft they replace, and A320neos. Read more here.  

1. The airline welcomed its new Club Suite, offering customers direct-aisle access, a door for greater privacy and luxurious flat-bed seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. It boasts 40 per cent more storage, including a vanity unit and mirror, WiFi, enviable 18.5-inch inflight entertainment screens, high definition gate-to-gate programming, and PC / USB power. Read more here.  

1. It continued its investment in new cabins with the refresh of its 777 aircraft.  

1. British Airways’ parent company, IAG became the first airline group in the world to announce a tough new target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and British Airways announced that it would be offsetting its customers’ carbon emissions on all domestic flights from 2020. Read more here.   

1. As part of a pertnership, British Airways, Shell and Velocys have submitted plans to build a waste to sustainable fuel plant in Humberside, to fuel the airline’s fleet of aircraft. Read more here.  

1. The airline continued its rollout of industry leading, highest quality, streaming WiFi across its entire fleet. 

1. British Airways Holidays introduced a new Wildlife Policy and partnership with The Born Free Foundation, committing to help end exploitative tourism that sees wild animals kept in captivity and funding a new wild cat enclosure in South Africa. Read more here.  

1. A new design concept was introduced for the airline’s lounges in New York-JFK, San Francisco, Johannesburg, Geneva and Linate, and Kelly Hoppen re-imagined its travel spa at Heathrow. Read more here. 

1. There was a new look for First (with new dining, sleeper suits and amenity kits and bedding) and World Traveller Plus (with new dining, amenity kit and pillow and blanket). Read more here and here. 

2. A new Accessibility customer service team was introduced as British Airways aimed to become the airline of choice for customers with hidden and visible disabilities. It also signed a pledge to make sure accessibility is discussed at boardroom level in a commitment to the Valuable 500. Read more here.   

3. More than 250,000 customers used biometric technology to board flights, increasing punctuality. Read more here.  

1. British Airways carried out its 100,000 green and clean pushback, using remote-controlled, electric Mototok vehicles. Read more here.  

1. Investing in technology, the airline began trials of autonomous baggage vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI) and even robots to increase efficiency and punctuality. Read more here, here and here. 

1. More than 70 new self-service bag drop machines were installed at Heathrow to help customers take more control of their journey. Read more here.  

1. British Airways operated its largest schedule in the last ten years with new routes to Charleston, Pittsburgh, Osaka, Islamabad, Dammam, Milan Bergamo, Split, Ljubljana, Montpellier, Lyon, Hamburg, Bastia, Preveza, Munich and Kos. Read more here.  

1. British Airways introduced flying lessons for future aviators and committed to do the same again in 2020. Read more here.  

1. The airline’s First Contact Resolution programme was extended from Heathrow to Worldwide, empowering its airport hosts to provide a resolution for any customer issue. Read more here.  

1. The team’s press office introduced a new BA PR Instagram account to keep journalists up to date with its latest stories. Follow BritishAirwaysPR.  

Notes to Editors 

British Airways is investing £6.5 billion for its customers over five years, taking delivery of 73 new aircraft including A350 and 787s, refurbishing its long-haul fleet with new cabins so they look and feel new, introducing new, redesigned lounges, new dining across all cabins, new bedding and amenity kits for First, Club World and World Traveller Plus, best quality onboard WiFi to every aircraft and providing access to power at every aircraft seat. The airline recently introduced its Club Suite, a new business class seat with direct aisle access on its A350 aircraft, which will be rolled out across the British Airways’ long-haul fleet over the next few years. 

For more information, contact the British Airways Press Office - press.office@ba.com