British Airways has flown to New Orleans since March 2017.
British Airways (BA) began its service to New Orleans (MSY) in March 2017, though it was discontinued in 2020 due to the pandemic. It did resume in April 2022. Below, we examine the state of the route since its post-pandemic revival.
First, some basics....
Below we see the number of yearly departures and the load factors the route obtained each year. The main focus will be on its post-pandemic performance; however, the period from May 2018 to May 2019 is included for a pre-pandemic comparison.
The picture emerges of a remarkably stable route. Since 2022, the route has maintained a similar load factor year to year, and the number of departures has remained steady between 204 and 209 over the last two years. However, the onboarding data suggests something more favorable. Despite a similar number of departures and load factor, the onboards are progressively up year to year.
In 2023 and 2024, the equipment did not vary much. However, in 2025, larger aircraft were used in higher frequency. This explains the higher number of onboarding passengers with a stable load factor.
Where are the passengers going?
Below is a map of the top 10 destinations, originating from MSY on BA, that passengers are destined for.
Averaged daily from May 2024 to May 2025 in PDEW (passengers daily each way), they break down below.
- LHR: 73
- CDG: 5
- FCO: 4
- BOM: 4
- ABZ: 3
- AMM: 3
- EDI: 3
- GLA: 3
- ATH: 2
- DUB: 2
Besides LHR itself, BA’s MSY-LHR flight mostly connects to other places in Europe, with only 11.5% of traffic connecting to points beyond Europe from LHR.
Conclusion
BA’s flight between New Orleans and London’s Heathrow Airport proves to be stable in the post-pandemic world. The frequency has remained relatively stable over the last three years, with loads consistently hovering around the 80-82% mark. Looking forward to the year ahead, BA has scheduled the flight to operate 217 times round-trip between May 2025 and May 2026, signaling continuing stability.