British Airways has reclaimed the crown for fastest transatlantic subsonic flight, with a record-breaking journey from New York to London.
In 2015, British Airways set a transatlantic speed record for subsonic travel by crossing the Pond (JFK-LHR) in 5 hours, 16 minutes.
On January 17, 2018, A Norwegian 787-9 shattered the record on a daytime flight from New York to London Gatwick by completing the journey in 5 hours, 13 minutes. Then on February 8, 2018 Norwegian broke its own record, competing the journey in 5 hours, 9 minutes.
That record has stood…until yesterday.
As Storm Ciara approached the United Kingdom, pilots onboard BA112 put the pedal to the medal. Strong tailwinds helped British Airways break Norwegian’s record and recapture the crown for fastest (non-Concorde) flight time between New York and London.
British Airways completed the journey in just 4 hours, 56 minutes. BA112 landed in London Heathrow at 4:43AM, nearly two hours ahead of schedule.
Fastest across the Atlantic tonight from New York to London so far is #BA112 at 4hr56m. #VS4 in 4:57, and #VS46 in 4:59. https://t.co/gfYoHGV3Y6https://t.co/kMhjCqdEtt
If we’re not mistaken, BA now retakes the fastest subsonic NY-London crossing from Norwegian. pic.twitter.com/Sr1GPeAjuh
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 9, 2020
Interestingly, British Airways finished only one minute ahead of Virgin Atlantic, which also broke the previous record. VS4 from JFK-LHR, operated by an Airbus A350-1000, completed the journey in 4 hours, 57 minutes. For good measure, VS46, traveling on the same route, finished in 4 hours, 59 minutes.
A British Airways spokesperson said:
“We always prioritize safety over speed records, but our highly trained pilots made the most of the conditions to get customers back to London well ahead of time.”
CONCLUSION
I’m sure economy passengers appreciated the short and relatively painless journey. But how about premium cabin passengers? If I paid top dollar for a lie-flat seat, I’d feel ripped off. Who wants to land at 4:13AM after only a couple hours of sleep? I say that half-jokingly, but you might want to re-consider upgrades from New York to London during the winter months, as flight times are much shorter than average.
Your comment about business class was exactly my thought. I would be so mad if I had wasted miles to get upgraded. To be honest, I don’t think East Coast to London flights are worth the upgrade. By the time dinner is done it is time for breakfast and you cannot rest at all.
Agreed, I think that any NS TATL route that is not at least 7 hours is a waste of miles or money.
Most Hawaii flights from PDX and west coast are on 737/A320 and +/- 6hrs. So F is just the usual reclining domestic F seat. Not much worse than some Transcon flights.
It would be cool to have seen the Concorde catch that jet stream.
Sadly, thou most of the time flying to LHR/EU from West coast we miss that continental jet stream because of traveling the great circle route.
Greta Thunburg would approve of this flight. Afterall, it’s natural wind powered.
And you know what else natural wind power is good for? Flying kites, Greta. Go fly one, Greta.
BA’s may have been the fastest transatlantic passenger flight, but it’s by no means the shortest time across the Pond.
That title belongs to Canadian carrier WestJet, who for several years flew from St John’s in Newfoundland to Dublin in considerably less than 4 hours.
I was on BA 92 YYZ-LHR Saturday night, which wasn’t far behind. 5 hours 57 minutes gate to gate, 5 hours 35 minutes in the air. The captain said we had tailwinds of 240 mph, with ground speeds bumping up against 800 mph at times. And yes, it did kinda suck that I could only sneak in 2 hours 45 minutes of sleep in the Club Suite between meal services 🙂
BA record has since been topped.
BA’s win is short lived as Virgins JFK/LHR VS4 beat BAs record flying time 4:47 in A350-1000 also burned 22 tons less fuel than the BA flight groundapeed 832 MPH and tailwind of 251 MPH.
Still slower than the SR71 Blackbird 1:56 flight time.
HT Mentour pilot website article
Has anybody on this site ever flown the Concorde (NY to London, and NY to Paris), when it was in service? It is too bad that it went out of service, as one never heard complaints about service to its passengers, on those flights. On the Concorde, everyone was treated great.