G-EUNA inaugurates BAW 1 from LCY to JFK

Flight BAW 001, operated by G-EUNA on finals to Shannon's R24 this lunchtime

It is six years since the 'Speedbird 1' call sign was retired with the last Concorde operations, but today it was brought back to life when British Airway's new premium only London City to JFK service took to the air. Flight BAW 1 departed London's dockland at 11.50 utc and just over one hour later it touched down on Shannon's R24 at 12.54 utc. Taxiing to it's stand the flight was greeted by the Shannon Airport Fire & Rescue Service who provided the traditional water cannon salute. 
British Airways Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh predicted that the service will be profitable within it's first year of operation and was among the passengers on the first flight commanded by Capt. Dave Thomas.

G-EUNA receives the water cannon on the Shannon ramp, copyright picture by Malcolm Nason

The new service is to be operated by two specially configured A318-112 aircraft, the first of which registered G-EUNA was delivered to the airline on August 28 last. In the interim the aircraft has been used for crew training purposes at London City Airport. The eventual pilot pool strength will reach sixty pilots once the second aircraft is delivered. Until the second aircraft is delivered the flight schedule will operate on a daily return basis, except Saturday when LCY Airport is closed. From mid October the schedule increases to two return flights per day, except Saturday. Flight BAW 1 departs LCY at 12.50 with BAW 2 departing JFK at 6.30 pm. Flight BAW 3 will depart LCY at 4.00 pm with the return departing JFK at 9.50 pm, all times local. Since the aircraft have been equipped as the 'airborne office' the service is being targeted at the frequent City business traveler who needs to be constantly contactable.

The A318 aircraft are configured with 32 lie flat seats

The short runway length at LCY prevents the A318 from uploading the full fuel load required to make LCY-JFK in one leg. As a result the flight has to make a fuel stop at Shannon on the westbound leg only. Whilst laying over at Shannon for the 45 minute stop the passengers clear full US Immigration, Customs and Border Protection so that they land in the US as domestic passengers, thus avoiding the lengthy queues in JFK. 
The Shannon stopover is also being used by BA to 'slip' a crew. The airline's flight crew are based at London's Gatwick Airport where their working day begins. To avoid the possibility of a crew being out of hours by the time they reach JFK due to en route delays at LCY or SNN the airline is 'slipping' a crew at Shannon.
In June, Lufthansa Technik subsidiary Shannon Aerospace announced that it would be providing line maintenance for the BA service at Shannon.