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British Airways’ double delivery

Today, the 2nd of October 2020, UK flag carrier;British Airways took delivery of 2 aircraft.The carrier took delivery of its first Boeing 777-300ER in 6 years and its seventh Airbus A350-1000.

THE DELIVERIES

Yesterday, the 1st of October, at 17:38 local time a Boeing 777-300ER registered G-STBM departed Boeing’s Everett plant for London’s Heathrow Airport; the home of British Airways.The aircraft is the first 777 the airline is taking delivery of in 6 years and will have the airlines new first and business class suites onboard.The aircraft is one of 4 remaining 777-300ER orders for the airline, with the first arriving today at Heathrow at 9:56 local time, the remaining 3 are expected to arrive in the coming months.

CREDIT-INSTAGRAM-@HEATHROW_PLANESPOTTER

The other delivery was an Airbus A350-1000 registered G-XWBG.The aircraft left Toulouse at 15:47 local time and landed at it’s new home at 16:06 local time.The Aircraft is British Airways’ seventh A350-1000 with a remaining 11 aircraft to be delivered.

CREDIT-INSTAGRAM-@HEATHROW__PLANESPOTTER

Why are these deliveries so significant?

The Coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe and has hit the aviation sector the worst.With some airlines loosing millions each day and others focusing on saving as much capital as they can, this double delivery has come as a surprise.With the quarantine measures in the UK still heavily restricting the airline’s ability to build back confidence and passenger levels taking delivery of new aircraft is the complete opposite of what is expected of an airline which is in crisis.Notably the airline has been trying to cut costs in recent months with the infamous firing and rehiring of many staff on lower paid contracts making the new aircraft deliveries making even less sense.However although this will cost the airline money, in the long term it will reduce costs; because as we know the airline is retiring all of its 31 inefficient Boeing 747-400’s, therefore with the delivery of these new fuel efficient aircraft it means the UK flag carrier will be able to cut costs in the long term which increases the likelihood of survival.

What do you think of this news?In the middle of a pandemic do you think BA should be taking deliveries of new aircraft instead of trying to prevent the fire/rehire of staff?Let us know in the comments below.

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