British Airways ramps up transatlantic route network for summer

British Airways is ramping up its route network to the United States to meet the growing demand for transatlantic travel during summer 2022.

British Airways will fly to 26 cities in the United States, with Portland being the newest destination on the airline’s route network. The Portland route will be operated using the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

“This summer British Airways will be flying from 26 US cities to London and we’re very excited to be adding Portland to our list of transatlantic destinations,” Neil Chernoff, British Airways’ Director of Networks and Alliances announced in a statement. “Not only are we the only airline to offer direct flights from Portland to London, but this new route also opens a wide variety of connections for our customers.”

The airline will relaunch its services to San Jose, California and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this summer. British Airways will also open a new daytime flight service between Newark Liberty International Airport to London Heathrow.

The news comes just weeks after the airline announced on May 6, 2022, that it will cut its summer flight schedule by 5% to offer more stable operations during the summer. In the results presentation, it said it aimed to bring North Atlantic operations up to 95% of pre-crisis levels in the third quarter of this year.

Passengers in Britain have been facing long queues as well as numerous flight cancellations and delays due to staff shortages for the past few months.

The aviation sector is facing staffing problems because of the large numbers of people placed on furlough or made redundant during the COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult to rehire to meet the subsequent increase in air travel demand.