BA says goodbye to in-flight shopping on short-haul, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph

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British Airways has made an internal announcement that it is phasing out in-flight shopping on short-haul flights from January.

January 2018 sees the arrival of the first A320 / A321 NEO aircraft which will come with new high-density seating. At the same time, the existing short-haul fleet will begin to be retrofitted to the same design.

One key plank of the new design is the removal of the toilets at the rear of the aircraft. These will now be built into the back wall, allowing extra rows of seats to fill the space currently taken up by the loo.

The downside is that the space available for storage trolleys is reduced by the width of the loo. Something has to give, and that ‘something’ is the cart containing the shopping items.

Shopping will remain on the aircraft which have yet to be converted, but as this becomes a bit of a lottery I would suggest that you make your giant Toblerone purchases in the terminal instead.

To be honest, I am surprised that in-flight shopping has survived so long. Sales always seemed minimal on short-haul flights. Has anyone at BA ever done the maths on the fuel burn generated by an additional heavy trolley and the brochures?

I can’t help thinking that whatever profit is generated from in-flight sales would be eaten up by fuel costs, and that is before you factor in the crew time required at a time when some flights are struggling to serve all ‘buy on board’ customers.

Newspaper changes too …..

Change is also coming to the British Airways newspaper selection.

From TODAY, the Daily Telegraph will no longer be available on board, in British Airways lounges or at the gates.

From 23rd December, the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday will no longer be offered.

British Airways says that this is due to the scrapping of bulk distribution deals by these two titles. If this is accurate then they are also likely to disappear from hotel lobbies and other airport lounges amas well.

Other newspapers, primarily The Times and Financial Times, will continue to be offered.

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