At first glance, the BA114 from New York’s JFK airport bound for Heathrow on Wednesday, 30 November was just like any other. But the 9.45pm flight was making history in a small way. It was the last-ever British Airways plane to take off from Terminal 7, after being home to the airline for 52 years. BA flew its first Boeing 747 into JFK, back when the airline was called BOAC, and it’s the terminal that Concorde used. But from Thursday, 1 December, all operations moved next door to Terminal 8.
If that doesn’t sound quite newsworthy, here’s why it is. First of all, if you’ve ever changed planes in JFK, getting off British Airways metal and boarding a plane flown by BA’s partner American Airlines, you’ll know that you had to change terminals – American is housed in Terminal 8. Changing planes is stressful enough, but adding a ride on the Skytrain between terminals does not make things easier.
