British Airways cuts business class breakfast from eight routes

BA says a trial received positive feedback from passengers, but not all customers seem happy

Flying buy: Economy class ‘buy on board’ inflight breakfast on British Airways (file photo) (Simon Calder)

Business-class passengers on eight prime British Airways domestic and European routes will no longer be served a hot breakfast on morning flights.

The frequent-flyer website Head for Points has obtained an internal British Airways message to staff that says Club Europe travellers on eight very short flights will be served “a fresh fruit plate, yoghurt and a heated pastry” rather than the full English breakfast. The aim is to make it “easier to deliver and give [crew] more time in the cabin with our customers”.

The founder of Head for Points, Rob Burgess, wrote: “To ring in 2026 in style, and as a farewell gift from departing chief customer officer Calum Laming, British Airways is removing hot breakfasts from shorter Club Europe routes.”

The service will be cut on some of BA’s most popular short-haul routes:

• Four domestic: Belfast City, Jersey, Manchester and Newcastle
• Four international: Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin and Paris CDG

A spokesperson for British Airways told The Independent: “Following successful trials in September, we’re updating the meal options on our shortest flights.

“Due to the limited time available on these journeys, serving and enjoying a hot breakfast has become challenging. To ensure a more comfortable experience, we’ll now offer a Continental breakfast on these routes.

“Hot breakfast will continue to be available on the vast majority of our short-haul flights, as our crew has sufficient time to prepare and customers can enjoy their meal comfortably.”

Business class passengers have lounge access included in their ticket, and can eat a hot breakfast here before they travel.

Judging from the comments from readers of Head for Points, not all customers are happy with the prospect of losing the hot breakfast. A user named Mat responded: “Why would cabin crew need more time with the customers!? Are they going to perform an entertainment act? Lap dance? Juggling?”

Nick commented: “What really annoys me is that those who introduce it have no idea about their customer profile:

• “Tight connections, who can’t eat in the lounge because they don’t have time.
• “Those who choose to sleep overnight from the US because they can eat on the connection.
• “Corporate and high-value customers taking the first flight of the morning who know all the shortcuts to avoid queues and deliberately get to the airport as late as possible knowing they can eat on board.”

Graham Layer accepted that “many, if not most of the Club passengers on these very short routes would have had an excellent breakfast in the BA lounge at [Heathrow] T5 anyway in advance”.

He added “Let’s hope that is not going to be curtailed too. Are BA dropping the prices too for Club on these routes? I suspect not.

“There might now be an excuse for reducing the number of staff by one as well if not needed to serve breakfast in Club.”

BA stresses the move is not a cost-cutting measure.

Eight years ago, British Airways ended complimentary meals on economy flights within Europe and rolled out a “Buy on Board” scheme for passengers in the cheap seats.

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