For some reason, I like to look on google flights and pick different cities to fly to and see what plane would go there. I decided to look at London City, and it said an A318 went from New York to London City. Is this normal?
Yes it is. The A318 is all business class and in my honest opinion replaced Concorde. It’s been modified to be able to fly into London City.
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Oh ok, that makes sense. Fly for 7 hours in a tiny A318 in cramped economy seems awful😂
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It’s not economy. It’s 32 (I think) business class seats. Since the little Airbus can’t take off at LCY with full fuel load to New York, it has to stop in Shannon, Ireland to refuel then fly to JFK.
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Sweet, that would seem kinda fun being in an all business class plane
It would. This in my opinion, replaced Concordes route from LHR - JFK. Because BA1 was from LHR - JFK using Concorde.
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Double daily flights during the work week and on sunday (Depends on which side of the atlantic you’re on)
Also they do the US custom clearance when you are at Shannon so that when you arrive at JFK you are treated like a Domestic passenger and get fast tracked in t New York. Saying that last time I arrived at JFK it only took me 30mins from he time I stepped off the aircraft until I had cleared TSA and customs and was on my way to the carpark!
Nothing to do with sharklets. The runway at EGLC is too short for the A318 to take off with enough fuel for the trans-Atlantic crossing - well technically too short for it to accelerate to V1 and then reject and come to a complete stop when fully fuelled. Therefore on the westbound sectors a refuelling stop is needed. As noted this is done at Shannon and whilst the plane refuels the passengers get off and go through US immigration and customs for BA1. BA1 passengers therefore arrive at JFK as domestic passengers and you just collect your bags and walk out of T7 (no interaction with customs or immigration needed).
BA3 arrives too late at Shannon to do immigration and customs so you need to do immigration at customs at JFK.
Eastbound flights BA 2 & BA4 don’t need a stop on the way back to the UK since runway length at JFK doesn’t impact and they can depart fully fuelled.
32 business class seats arranged in 8 rows of 2+2.
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It is a weight issue, not a fuel saving issue. The fuel saving with the sharklets would have to be spectacular to enable a crossing of the Atlantic on 10 tonnes of fuel!
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Didn’t know that about Speedbird 3! thought both flights did the immigration outbound.
Both BA1 & BA3 used to pre-clear at SNN, so you were right that when the service started they both did immigration there. I think it was 2014 when the US CBP changed their hours at SNN and finished earlier in the day, which meant BA3 could no longer re-clear. The passengers for BA3 stay onboard now at Shannon and have to do immigration and customs at JFK. Haven’t done BA3 myself, but I hear reports from others that the BA staff at JFK push them to the front of the queue so at least the wait isn’t too bad.
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whilst have flown in / out of both JFK and LCY many times, never had the fortune to do it with BA on the Speedbird 1-4 flights. As much company wont pay for business class on flights less than 10 hrs I could be waiting a while…
If you ever get the chance I thoroughly recommend it. Best way cost-wise is wait until there is a business class sale from DUB or CPH to the US and book starting from there. Anyway, I am going off topic, but if you want any advice feel free to send me a PM.
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Yes it is normal I see their A318 here almost every day.
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