TRIED&TESTED Flight


British Airways B787-9 First London-Austin


BACKGROUND With a total of 42 B787s (both the B787-8 and B787-9) destined to be delivered to British Airways, the aircraft will become a mainstay of the airline’s fleet. It already has eight three-class B787-8s, the first of which debuted in summer 2013. This review looks at the four-class B787-9, which arrived at the end of September – on this occasion it flew to Austin, a route normally served by the B787-8. The B787-9 will be rostered on the London- Delhi route from October 25. CHECK-IN Flight BA191 to Austin departs London Heathrow daily at 1155 – I arrived at T5 and checked in at 1000 before having a drink in the Concorde Room. The flight boarded from Gate A18 so it was a short walk and then we had the chance to see the new seat. THE SEAT The B787-9 is 20 feet longer than the B787-8, allowing


22 NOVEMBER 2015


BA to add a cabin of eight First seats configured 1-2-1 (A, E-F, K) in addition to 42 Club World, 39 World Traveller Plus and 127World Traveller (216 in total). I was seated in 1A. The new First cabin was designed by Forpeople in conjunction with the airline’s in-house team. British supplier Prototrim, which works with Jaguar and Land Rover, developed the soft leather and fabric trim. There’s much that’s familiar about this new First, including the colour scheme of the cabin, the metallic swoosh (actually called the speedmarque) and the slightly retro look of some of the fixtures and fittings, including the lamps (which are now fixed to the tables, instead of the walls). Cynics will say this is just rolling out a variation of the existing First, but consistency of experience is


important, and BA says it does not want passengers to see noticeable differences in product and “have to learn a new seat”. BA says the new product has been designed based on feedback from customers who want enough room to spread out but also have their belongings to hand. The most obvious difference is the higher walls – this nod towards the “suite” concept provides protection from the aisle without doors. I don’t think this is much of a loss as I like interacting with the crew. A welcome change for shorter passengers is the extendable ottoman, which pulls out so that when you are in take-off or landing position you can rest your feet on it. (Companion dining is no longer possible.) The ottoman’s design has also been improved to stop it dropping to the floor and causing disturbance to other people. Feedback showed that heavy- handed passengers slamming doors shut, putting the IFE screen back into place or dropping the table down had a big impact on the experience of neighbouring passengers. As a result, all of the stowable parts and devices now have “soft closing”. They aren’t


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