Review of BA Cityflyer flight Southampton Dublin in Economy

Airline BA Cityflyer
Flight BA2938
Class Economy
Seat 5D
Aircraft Embraer E-190
Flight time 01:00
Take-off 18 Sep 22, 10:45
Arrival at 18 Sep 22, 11:45
CJ 34 reviews
Jett Tyler
By GOLD 814
Published on 29th September 2022

bRITISH aIRWAYS sOUTHAMPTON OPS


The operations at Southampton Airport for BA Cityflyer (on behalf of British Airways) came about as part of a means to keep their planes flying over the weekends when London City is closed for flights between Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. In March 2020 Flybe, who operated 80% of commercial air traffic at SOU went bankrupt, and BA stepped in to fill the gap on the leisure flights that were once offered by Flybe, announcing the new operation in December 2020, with operations starting in the summer of 2021.


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BA Cityflyer uses London City based crews and ERJ-190 for its weekend operations at Southampton.


The Embraer ERJ-190 makes up the flights here. The routes are all seasonal (sans Edinburgh) and they do some during the summer and others during the winter. The routes offered are: Edinburgh, Dublin, Alicante, Bergerac, Chambery, Faro, Florence, Ibiza, Limoges, Malaga, Mykonos, Nice, Palma De Mallorca and Salzburg. The services to EDI & DUB are mainly used to reposition planes between LCY and SOU. 


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BA's operation has filled a lot of the leisure routes once operated by Flybe until March 2020.


British Airways does have a history with Southampton. Most notoriously, British Airways flight BA5390 (BAC 1-11, reg G-BJRT) made its dramatic emergency landing at Southampton Airport when the cockpit window failed partially sucking out Captain Tim Lancaster. Luckily Lancaster survived his ordeal and the BAC 1-11 would continue to fly for BA and some other airlines until 2006.


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The BA5390 incident occurred on a British Airways BAC 1-11 like this preserved example at IWM Duxford.


It would appear BA Cityflyer is staying at SOU for the foreseeable future and the routes might vary over the coming years and it would be interesting to see how this develops.


sou aIRPORT AND spitfire lOUNGE


Time for my first flight from Southampton since the pandemic. The airport is now up and running as it was back in 2019, and one thing I finally had a chance to try out was the Spitfire Lounge at the Airport!


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I went through Security using the Priority Lane, which at the time of day I went through in SOU, was a bit pointless- but as I was trying my new OneWorld Sapphire status on this trip to "Break it in" I was trying it at every avenue I could use, after all I won't have it after July 31st 2023.


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Entry into the Spitfire Lounge at Southampton can be acquired (at time of writing) under the following conditions: Pay £25 entry on the Southampton Airport website, Use a Priority Pass program, Fly British Airways Club Europe or Flying a BA flight whilst holding BA Executive Club Silver or Gold Status (NOTE: this currently doesn't extend to OneWorld Partner Airlines).


KLM is apparently discussing a contract for its SOU operations for their relevant customers- but at the time of writing you can't enter the Lounge with benefits via KLM. Aer Lingus also doesn't offer lounge access for their customers either at the time of writing.


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I took a few pictures of the lounge when it was quiet, at one point I was the only guest in the lounge for about 10 minutes. I also had multiple drinks and some breakfast before my flight to Dublin.


It was a very nice lounge for a small regional airport like Southampton. Comparing it to some other "contract" lounges I've used, I rate this one really highly. I got lucky to visit this one as it was quiet, but when the airport probably picks up it would likely be quite busy and noisy, I really enjoyed the food offering and there was a lovely mixture of drinks available in hot, cold and alcoholic. Yes a double serving of Bell's Whiskey helped start my holiday- what can I say?



Before long, it was time for my flight to start boarding at Gate 6, and it was time to familiarise myself with what BA Cityflyer had to offer!


ba cITYFLYER ba2938 (G-LCAD)



Gate 6 was where we boarded, getting on a small bus to take the passengers over to the Embraer ERJ-190. It was a quite flight, about just over half full, Club Europe had four rows allocated for one single passenger. We made the small drive to our plane passing by some regional airliners readying for their flights of the morning including a Blue Island ATR (Jersey), Aurigny Air Service Dornier D228 (Alderney) and another BA Cityflyer ERJ (Mykonos). 


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Our plane to Dublin was the Embraer ERJ-190 G-LCAD. This aircraft was delivered to China Southern Airways in 2012 and flew regional routes in China until late 2019, in 2020 the plane was sent back to its lessor and after a period in storage it went to BA Cityflyer as G-LCAD.


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Can't beat an open board, especially when you got a nice day to go with it!


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The Embraer fleet are a much better experience in Economy Class over the mainline BA A320 fleet based at London Heathrow/Gatwick. The seats are 2-2 abreast seating, the legroom is more superior and a free bar service is still used.


We left a few minutes behind schedule, however given how quiet the Southampton Airport is usually these days we departed quite quickly and had an amazingly scenic view of Hampshire as we darted out of SOU.


My seat (5D) offered a nice angle showing plenty of scenery as well as a good view of the wing/engine.



The in-flight service started and I was one of the first people served as I was sat right behind the Club Europe curtain. I opted to enjoy a hot tea with an orange juice alongside the "Sweet Option" of a chocolate brownie. A packet of crisps was the savoury option. A nice snack for such a short flight. 


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The flight was nice and smooth. I could see quite a bit of the UK as we flew across, despite the scattering of clouds.


I went to the toilet at the back of the plane, and whilst on my way out, I noticed the flight was stocked with the Brewdog Jetstream IPA Beer, something I really love when flying BA! So I asked if I could have one to enjoy- and the crew were happy to give me one!


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We began our decent into Dublin, flying in from the East and over the Irish Sea. So once we flew over the beaches of Ireland, it was only a few minutes before the vast Dublin Airport came into view and we landed on the Runway 28, it was cool to see the new Runway from a distance now operational.


We came off the runway and taxied over to Terminal One, parking on a remote stand next to a Loganair ATR-42. I noticed during the taxi a lot of US Airlines gearing up for their flights back to the USA from Terminal 2 where Dublin offers an enticing US Pre-Clearance service. A service I fully believe BA and London Heathrow should look at offering at Terminal 5.



I grabbed a few final shots of the ERJ-190 during disembarkation, we did wait about 5-10 minutes for a stair to be brought to our plane so we could leave. I opted to be one of the last off the aircraft, allowing the mess of a que to die off.


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And thus concludes another amazing BA Cityflyer experience for me, it is a real treat to enjoy these as I can't easily access London City Airport as much as I would enjoy flying on BACF. These Southampton services have some really good potential and I do hope they stick around in the long term, I believe BA is benefiting operating these SOU holiday flight services as they can't do a full LCY operation across Saturday and Sunday.


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Verdict

BA Cityflyer

7.5/10
Cabin10.0
Cabin crew10.0
Entertainment/wifi2.0
Meal/catering8.0

FlyBe Executive Lounge

7.0/10
Comfort9.0
Meal/catering8.0
Entertainment/wifi2.5
Services8.5

Southampton - SOU

9.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access8.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness10.0

Dublin - DUB

9.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access9.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness9.0

Conclusion

BA Cityflyer- I couldn't fault them, good airports, good on board service, amazing seating options and I personally paid a good value for this regional flight!

SOU- Great to finally experience the Spitfire Lounge for the first time, I would be happy to visit here again on the odd occasion! Nice to see SOU Airport is finally getting back on its feet after the loss of the original Flybe and the following onslaught of the pandemic.

Related

4 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 612535 by
    LeMatheuxVoyageur BRONZE 810 Comments
    Hello and thanks a lot for this new report. BACF seems to offer a really convinient offer on this route. I also generally prefer flights operated by regionnal jets (like planes from CRJ or ERJ families) than big planes as A319-20-21. This was the same in France with the regional subsidiary Air France Hop ! until just after the covid period, when Air France decided to close the most of AF Hop ! routes to replace them by routes operated by Transavia, the low cost branch of the group. I find it so disappointing. The lounge is really suitable for a such regional airport and Nantes should look at offering a such service. Have a nice day !
  • Comment 612943 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Very cool to see a BA flight not beginning or ending in London. It's nice to see BA developing point-to-point regional flying outside of London airports. Very convenient for passengers in the South who can avoid the hassle of going through London and get a very nice product with the BA Cityflyer E-Jets

    The Embraer fleet are a much better experience in Economy Class over the mainline BA A320 fleet based at London Heathrow/Gatwick.

    Indeed, a much better experience in Y with the much wider seats and lack of middle seats. Not to mention better service standards on Cityflyer than mainline.

    Thanks for sharing!

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