AI is being used by British Airways planes to avoid bad weather and flight delays
BRITISH Airways’ £7billion investment in AI has led to the airline’s flight punctuality soaring to record levels – with 86 per cent of jets now taking off on time.
The impressive first quarter 2025 figures compared to a punctuality record of just 46 per cent in 2008 thanks to new cutting edge technology first revealed in The Sun.
BA services hit more than 90 per cent on-time departures on 38 of the 89 operational days.
And across April, two thirds of all the airline’s Heathrow departures left ahead of time – more than double the 2023 figures.
Last year the Sun first revealed BA’s £7bn investment programme – including £100m developing digital tools and apps to boost operational performance.
More than 100 data scientists are now employed by the airline.
BA can now allocate aircraft landing at Heathrow to stands based on a live analysis of the onward travel plans of customers on any given flight – cutting missed connections and disruption to onward journeys. This has saved 160,000 minutes of delays.
A real-time weather program proactively reroutes aircraft to avoid problems.
This has saved 243,000 minutes of delays.
New apps for pilots, cabin crew teams and aircraft dispatch teams will help speed-up aircraft departures.
The Sun was the first media outlet invited inside the airline’s new security-restricted nerve centre to showcase cutting edge technology making flying better.
We revealed how six separate computer systems for different areas of BA have been jettisoned for one giant global interface – dubbed ‘Mission Control’ – which unites the airline; streamlining services and tracking aircraft movements.
The live-data is beamed into BA’s Heathrow hub on huge screens, allowing bosses to take pre-emptive action to limit operational hazards.
“It’s like an elaborate game of computer puzzle Tetris”, Richard Anderson, the airline’s Director of Global Operations, told The Sun.
Ground-breaking immediate responses to limit disruption are now the norm – meaning a smoother and seamless travel experience for flyers.
Thrilled BA chairman Sean Doyle said yesterday that AI, forecasting, optimisation and machine learning’ have transformed the airline’s operational performance.
At an aviation summit in Pittsburgh in the US, he said: “Improving operational performance is a key part of our investment programme because we know the impact delays and disruption can have on our customers.
“Whilst disruption to our flights is often outside of our control, our focus has been on improving the factors we can directly influence and putting in place the best possible solutions for our customers when it does happen.
“That’s why we’ve invested £100m in our own operational resilience, putting funding into technology and tools, and devising a better way of working on the ground at Heathrow as well as creating an additional 600 operational roles into the airport.
“The tech which colleagues have at their fingertips has been a real game-changer for performance, giving them the confidence to make informed decisions for our customers based on a rapid assessment of vast amounts of data.
“It’s exciting that our industry is able to harness this capability, which will develop even further in the months and years to come.”
The Sun also tried out British Airways’ new First Class seat – it’s a mini hotel room with cinema screen TVs.