Examined: British Airways' Top Boeing 747-400 Routes Before The Type's Retirement

Before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, British Airways used the Boeing 747-400 on select long-haul routes. As well as serving cities with high demand where their extra capacity came in handy, these double-decker quadjets also operated premium-heavy routes, as their size meant that there was space for more flatbeds than on smaller twinjets. Their final full year of operations at BA was in 2019.

By taking a look at historical scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, we can examine the routes on which the UK flag carrier and oneworld founding member deployed its jumbo jets most frequently during their final full calendar year. The type saw plenty of action out of BA’s main hub at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) back in 2019, but some routes stood out more than others.

A Very Special Route Took Center Stage

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Per Cirium, BA scheduled a grand total of 18,114 flights with its 747-400s in 2019, offering collective figures of 5,485,596 seats and 23,724,544,375 available seat miles (ASMs) in the process. By far and away its most popular route on this front connected Heathrow with New York JFK, a rather apt choice given that this was the corridor on which the original 747-100 was introduced by Pan Am in 1970.

In 2019, BA scheduled 1,776 flights each way between Heathrow and JFK using the 747-400. This equates to just under five a day on average, although, at its peak, this figure was closer to six, with 176 round trips penciled in for January alone. BA used both its standard and premium-heavy layouts, which we shall explore later, on this route. At the time of the type’s withdrawal, the airline’s then-CEO Alex Cruz said:

“So many people, including many thousands of our colleagues past and present, have spent countless hours on these wonderful planes. (…) They will always hold a special place in our hearts at British Airways.”

The Best Of The Rest

Credit: Vincenzo Pace

Away from JFK, but remaining in the United States of America, Miami International Airport (MIA) was the second most popular destination in 2019 when it came to British Airways and its 747-400 operations. Indeed, that year saw 943 round trips scheduled from Heathrow with the type, equating to just over 2.5 a day on average. May, July, August, and October were the top months on this front, with three daily trips.

Third on the list was Cape Town (CPT), to which BA penciled in 520 rotations with the 747-400 from Heathrow in 2019. This worked out at an average of just under 1.5 a day, but, as a general rule, there would be two in the northern hemisphere winter / southern hemisphere summer and one in the northern hemisphere summer / southern hemisphere winter. All of them used the 747-400’s standard 337-seat layout.

Two other destinations saw more than daily service on average from BA’s 747-400s in 2019, with both located in the US. Firstly, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) had 509 rotations with the type penciled in from Heathrow that year, while Chicago O’Hare (ORD) managed a total of 389.

What Was It Like Onboard?

Credit: British Airways

As previously alluded to, BA’s final full year of 477-400 flights to and from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) saw the carrier deploy two seating layouts. These are detailed below, courtesy of data from aeroLOPA.

In the premium-heavy 74S layout, economy class only accounted for 52.73% of the jet’s capacity. On these aircraft, first class was located on the lower deck in the nose, with Club World business class located in the middle of the lower deck and all of the upper deck with old-style ‘yin-yang’ beds.

The 74V layout had a curious quirk, as premium economy was located directly behind first class, near the front of the lower deck. There was then a small Club World section over the wings, with the rest of these beds found upstairs. As usual, economy class dominated the rear of the lower deck.