Cutting-edge technology introduced as part of British Airways’ £7bn transformation investment programme has seen the airline boost its operational performance to record levels.
The airline’s Chairman and CEO, Sean Doyle, told the Future Travel Experience World Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh that AI, forecasting, optimisation and machine learning have transformed the airline’s operational performance and become an integral part of getting customers to where they need to be with minimal delay to their travel plans.
Every part of British Airways now uses this latest technology, which has significantly increased the number of flights departing on time or ahead of their scheduled take-off times.
The airline has invested £100m in improving operational resilience and the first quarter of 2025 saw 86 per cent of its flights on time from its London Heathrow base, the highest D-15 punctuality performance on record. This is compared to 46% in 2008.
Throughout the quarter, British Airways flights achieved 90+ per cent on-time departures on 38 of the 89 operational days.
And last month (April), two thirds of all of the airline’s flights departing from Heathrow left ahead of their departure time. This is more than double the number that achieved this for the same period in 2023 and almost 20 per cent more than those that did in 2024.
In 2023, British Airways announced a major £7bn investment programme designed to deliver a world-class customer experience and better on-time performance.