British Airways will soon be giving passengers less legroom than Ryanair on European flights.
As we reported in November 2017, British Airways is to cut legroom by adding one or two rows of seats on its A320 and A321 aircraft. It means passengers will have a mere 29 inches of space, compared with the 30 inches on Ryanair.
The move sees British Airways continue its seemingly relentless program of charges and cuts.
Other charges and cuts recently introduced include:
- BA recently started charging for food and drinks on European flights
- charges for baggage
- charges for seat selection
- is increasing the number of seats on long-haul 777 aircraft by increasing the seats across from 9 to 10 (they call this densification)
- reduced its free meal service on long-haul economy flights of less than eight-and-a-half hours from two meals to one
Swiss Air, Australian Airlines, Alitalia, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, and TAP Portugal all offer free food. In the U.S, Delta announced last month that it would bring back complimentary meals, rolling them out on select transcontinental routes.
The trend to cut and charge has accelerated since BA gave the top job to Alex Cruz, previously the boss of Spanish low cost airline Vueling.
The big question is will this damage even more the previous excellent reputation enjoyed by British Airways for decades.
Many people choose BA for a superior product but now they are getting an inferior one.
But they are not competing directly with Ryanair and easyJet at their biggest airport, Heathrow. Neither of these fly from there.
What remains strongly in their favour is their dominance of Heathrow, meaning that large numbers of passengers have no choice but to fly with BA and their IAG partners – Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling.
N.B. Image credit: cbc.ca
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British Airways short haul economy dining
