Webwire quoted Willie Walsh from BA saying, “The A318 is the perfect aircraft for these flights. It is capable of operating at London City and is large enough for us to provide the number of business class seats required to make this a viable operation.”

It looks as though this venture will see better results than Maxjet and Eos saw, due to the deep pockets at Mother BA.  Will it work with the smallest version of the A320 series?  Economies of scale say no, but if they can sell a handfull of seats at an obscene price, the London City business crowd may just turn this into a money maker.  It’s going to be difficult, however, since BA expects to fit each A318 with only 32 seats, and have announced that West-bound flights will have a scheduled fuel stop.

I suppose now we just sit back and wait for the environmentalists to speak up.  If you remember, BA was already in the hotseat for flying an aircraft nearly empty (which admittedly needs to be done at times for repositioning).  If the green community catches wind of empty A318′s, it may prove a damaging hit to BA’s public relations.