British Airways' 1st Airbus signals Bengaluru's growth

British Airways has signalled Bengaluru's growing stature on the aviation map by upgrading its daily flight to a 331-seater Airbus A350-1000. The flight's maiden landing at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here on January 2 was a first not just for KIA but also for the airline.

Bengaluru is now the airline's fourth destination on its worldwide network to get the A350, after Toronto, Tel Aviv and Dubai. The daily flight departs KIA at 7 am. British Airways currently operates two daily flights each to Mumbai and Delhi but not on the A350 platform.

The airline has also opted Bengaluru to introduce its newly branded business cabin 'Club Suite' with direct-aisle access, separate door and flat-bed seats in the 1-2-1 configuration.

This new class offers 40% more storage, vanity unit, hi-speed WiFi, 18.5-inch inflight entertainment screens, and HD gate-to-gate programming, says Moran Birger, British Airways’ Head of Sales (Asia Pacific and Middle East). Birger officially launched the service here on Thursday.

Known as the 'Hushliner,' the A350 boasts of a 40% reduction in noise footprint and 25% reduction in fuel burn.

The aircraft's 331 seats are divided into 56 seats under the Club World cabin, three cabins with another 56 seats under the World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy) and 219 seats under the World Traveller (Economy) cabins. The hi-speed WiFi will be offered to all passengers.

British Airways, says Birger, will invest £6.5 billion over the next five years in fleet upgrades, new lounges across the world, WiFi and other customer services. “Seventy-two new aircraft will be added. Of these, 18 will be A350s, joining the fleet by 2021.”

The airline also operates the Airbus A380, 12 of which operate from London's Heathrow Airport to Singapore, Johannesberg and Los Angeles. However, Birger did not rule out bringing A380 to Bengaluru sometime in the future if there is demand.

British Airways, according to Birger, has been operating flights to India for the last 95 years. The first flight to Bengaluru was in 2005. Based in Heathrow's Terminal-5, the airline was the first to introduce flat beds in 1999.