Club World London City was an executive all-business-class flight service between

London City Airport London City Airport is a regional airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the Borough of Newham, approximately east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the twin centres of London's financial ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

marketed by

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

. The service launched in September 2009 and operated until March 2020.

Service

BA began the service in September 2009, using two Airbus A318s fitted with 32 lie-flat beds in an all business class cabin. Flights operate under the numbers previously reserved for Concorde: BA001 – BA004. Until 2016, the service was operated twice-daily on weekdays between London City Airport and

John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Avia ...

with one daily service operating at weekends. Due to the short runway at London City Airport limiting fuel uptake, westbound flights from London to New York made a stop at

Shannon Airport Shannon Airport ( ga, Aerfort na Sionainne) is an international airport located in County Clare in the Republic of Ireland. It is adjacent to the Shannon Estuary and lies halfway between Ennis and Limerick. The airport is the third busiest ai ...

for refueling, where passengers on board flight BA1 cleared US Customs and Immigration, arriving in New York as domestic passengers. Although the fuel stop in Shannon led to a longer flight time compared to flights departing from Heathrow Airport to New York, passengers still saved time flying the London City service because they could check a bag just 20 minutes before departure compared to the 60 minutes required at Heathrow. The ability to clear US Customs and Immigration allowed passengers to save time after landing in New York; however, the introduction of

Global Entry Global Entry is a program of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection service that allows pre-approved, low-risk travelers to receive expedited clearance upon arrival into the United States through automatic kiosks at select airports and via the S ...

negated some of these time savings. BA3, the second daily flight, enjoyed preclearance until 2012 when the US preclearance facility in Shannon shortened its operating hours. The flight was cancelled in 2016, leaving one daily service which preclears in Shannon. The service was suspended in March 2020 amidst

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

, before being officially cancelled in August 2020.

Operations

British Airways (BA) Limited was a British airline and a subsidiary of British Airways created in 2012 to operate the Club World London City service. The subsidiary was established as Acoperco Limited on 14 March 2012, which applied for operating and route licences with the Civil Aviation Authority the same month. British Airways transferred its two A318 aircraft to the certificate of the new subsidiary. The airline had

codeshare A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

agreements with

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

Finnair Finnair ( fi, Finnair Oyj, sv, Finnair Abp) is the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international ...

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

, and

US Airways US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon ...

. The Club World London City services returned to being operated directly by British Airways PLC in 2015 although no changes were made to the aircraft, crews or product offered.

Fleet

The service was operated using two

Airbus A318-100 Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

aircraft. Between 2012 and 2015, British Airways Limited operated the aircraft under a wet-

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

arrangement with

. After 2015, they were directly operated by the mainline British Airways, with no changes to the service offered. Each aircraft has 32 business class seats in a 2-2 configuration of eight rows which recline fully-flat. In-flight entertainment is provided via

iPads The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...

distributed to passengers.

Titan Airways Titan Airways is a British charter airline founded in 1988 and based at London Stansted Airport. The carrier specialises in short-notice ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance) and wet lease operations as well as ad-hoc passenger and ...

, a UK

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights ...

, acquired one of the A318s in 2017 to expand its operations after British Airways cancelled the second daily Club World London City service.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:British Airways Ltd (2012-15) Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom Airlines established in 2012 Airlines disestablished in 2015 British Airways Former Oneworld affiliate members Airlines based in London 2009 establishments in England 2012 establishments in England 2015 disestablishments in England 2020 disestablishments in England Business class airlines British companies disestablished in 2015 British companies established in 2012 Commercial flights

Service

Operations

Fleet

See also

References