BA Upgrades Moscow Route with 747-400 Introduction

British Airways (BA) is to enhance its product offering on its London Heathrow – Moscow route through the introduction of a Boeing 747-400 on one of its three daily flights. The airline currently offers a two-class service using a mix of Airbus A320 Family and Boeing 767 widebody equipment, but the use of the Jumbo Jet will see a four-class service being provided on a single daily rotation from April 2012.

The changes were announced during a UK trade delegation to Russia hosted by Prime Minister, David Cameron, alongside several major British business leaders. “We are proud to have been flying to Russia for over fifty years,” said Sir Martin Broughton, Chairman, British Airways, who accompanied David Cameron to Moscow. “It is an important and growing market for us and we want to reflect our commitment to the region and our customers by enhancing our services and increasing the number of seats that are available to Moscow,” he added.

The London Heathrow – Moscow route is currently flown as a short-haul service, but BA will now upgrade this to a long-haul operation, with up to four classes of travel. This means customers will have the opportunity to enjoy the airline’s fully flat-beds, comprehensive in-flight entertainment and sample a wide selection of meals and drinks in unrivalled comfort.

BA is one of four airlines to offer flights between the two cities, but none of its rivals currently offers such a premium service on the four-hour flight. The table above highlights the current O&D passenger traffic split between the four airlines and BA clearly dominates the market with a 33.7 per cent share. Aeroflot Russian Airlines, which offers three flights per day to its Sheremetyevo Airport hub in the Russian capital holds a 24.0 per cent share, while Transaero Airlines and bmi British Midland International, relative newcomers to the route, having only served the market since the mid 2000s, have a 20.4 per cent and 19.3 per cent share, respectively.