British Airways is quietly trimming another long-standing element of its short-haul premium product, and the rationale strikes me as dubious.
British Airways Cuts Hot Breakfast On Many Club Europe Routes
Starting on January 7, 2026, British Airways will eliminate hot breakfast service on many Club Europe business class flights. British Airways says the change is to make it easier for cabin crew members to deliver meals to passengers, and to give them “more time in the cabin with customers.”
Impacted routes include:
- Amsterdam (AMS)
- Belfast (BHD)
- Brussels (BRU)
- Dublin (DUB)
- Jersey (JER)
- Manchester (MAN)
- Newcastle (NEW)
- Paris (CDG)
Breakfast on these routes will now include a fresh fruit plate, yoghurt, and a heated pastry.
This Is About Growing Business Cabins, Cost Cutting
This news reads a bit like a sketch from the aviation satire “Come Fly With Me.” I can just picture Penny strutting down the aisle, gleefully remarking that there is “no time” for hot breakfast…
Jokes aside, this meal service change stems from two basic realities. First, the airline is operating larger business class cabins on these short routes, which may create a time crunch when meal choice is offered (solved by allowing pre-orders…). Second, this is a cost-cutting measure (or else British Airways would offer more on the tray for heartier appetites, like sliced cheese and meat).
A trial began with a limited number of domestic flights earlier in September 2025. Some domestic flights, like Edinburgh and Glasgow, will again have hot breakfast on the menu, but the cold breakfast will impact some of BA’s densest European routes.
I get it. Not everyone eats pork or wants a hot breakfast, but few will be offended by a hot croissant or fresh fruit. Plus, none of BA’s main competitors serve hot breakfast on flights of similar length.
Even so, I find this particularly galling because, as late as 2017, British Airways offered hot breakfasts to all passengers onboard domestic flights (so much for the “not enough time” argument…). It was a beautiful signature touch that set BA apart from its competitors and created loyalty among frequent flyers. I wrote about the end of that era here.
> Read More: The Death Of The English Breakfast On British Airways Domestic Flights.
Now, not even business class passengers are afforded this meal option. Instead, they are left with what is essentially a light snack. Not everyone has time to eat before their flight!
CONCLUSION
British Airways’ removal of hot breakfasts from Club Europe routes is more about cutting costs than giving cabin crew “more time in the cabin with customers.” Sadly, this change erodes what was once a meaningful point of differentiation when traveling in business class on BA, but without competitive pressure to offer hot breakfasts on short routes, BA figured this was a cutback it could get away with.
After a brief moment of honesty with how they described the recent Avios deval, they are back to treating customers as fools and lying to them
Any airline that calls 3-3 configuration with blocked middle seat ‘Business’ class thinks we’re fools.
Happy New Year to you, Matthew.
Since this topic was discussed on other sites and I didn’t comment there, I will do so here.
I am not sure I see where there is much value in a breakfast this complex on flights this short.
It is too hard to assemble a breakfast of this caliber and allow the passenger to enjoy it in the 20 minutes or so in cruise.
The laughable part is for any company trying to paint this as progress. It is realistic and pragmatic but it isn’t an improvement.
and, yes, I love an English hot breakfast
I think, broadly speaking, airline meals or even beverage service itself is needless on most shorter flights and is just an antiquated relic of pre-deregulation days. But I certainly enjoy it and there was something very special about flying BA and enjoying a hot English breakfast no matter the flight, if departing in the morning.
LOL, now THAT’S the gaslighting we all love and expect from S*itish Airways!
I really have to wonder if the executives who write these releases enjoy it when companies they do business with lie to them about service or product reductions. It’s one thing when a company decides to eliminate a product that has been a part of their offering for a long time. No one enjoys that but sometimes we understand it’s the nature of the beast. If customers have proven they won’t pay anything extra for a better product offering, then why offer it? But as the old adage goes “don’t pee on my back and tell me it’s raining”. When you blatantly lie to me and claim a service reduction is a “product enhancement” what was merely disappointing now becomes something that makes me actively unhappy with the company.
Whatever corporate comm school is telling people to lie to their customers’ needs to be shut down.
100% agreed.
I’m not surprised to see it on the UK & Ireland routes, and also, to a lesser degree, on AMS and BRU. Competition for SN and KL doesn’t dictate any more. CDG surprises me. With AF opening a new lounge in LHR, BA should be doing everything in their power to keep the edge over them. Though, to be fair, any time I’ve booked LHR-CDG over the train I did it because I intended to go to the Galleries First lounge and drink Champagne, so I guess the meal is secondary.
“a hot corissant”
What, praytell is such an oddity?
Well, one should go to the airport early and, if possible, head to a lounge with generous food and drink service…
I fear that you may not be very familiar with UK Aspire/Escape lounges.
Of course, this appears to be a controversial trimming decision taken by BA after a very thorough analysis… This situaion once again demonstrates how important and necessary airline competition is on every route.
Yeah but on many of those international routes (BRU, AMS, CDG, DUB), BA does have competition…and is still making these cuts.
In truth, even the BA fruit and yogurt is going to be better than the boxed slop that KLM serves in business class between LHR and AMS…I figure it is that reality that is driving BA here.
I think that BA phrased the change as allowing FA’s to spend more time with passengers. That’s good because I suspect the FA’s will need that time to get an earful about how badly the new breakfast sucks.
LOL. Exactly.
I can remember when there was only economy service on BA domestic services, the routes were generally operated by 757s in an all economy layout. On morning services, a generous hot breakfast was served to every passenger by the five crew on the 757 with time to spare,
These days four crew cannot offer twenty people in business the same service because of time contstraints or is it just more customer contempt from BA?
One day in a few years, they will wake up to having pissed off those foolish enough to be loyal to them who walked in huge numbers over the revamp this time last year of the executive club and all of a sudden, there will be no one with any loyalty left.