UK flag carrier British Airways is selling off in-flight items, including plates and champagne flutes, as well as collectors' items from its retired Boeing 747 fleet.
British Airways said the sale of the items, which also includes hot towels, blankets and slippers, would allow buyers to "re-create a magical flying experience at home." The airline will also offer collectors' items from its Boeing 747 fleet, such as aircraft trolleys and canisters.
Buying the in-flight experience
In a press release, British Airways said this is the first time that it has given people the chance "to get their hands on items from British Airways aircraft which have circled the globe hundreds of times."
According to the airline, travelers will now be able to recreate British Airways' First Class flying experience by purchasing "inflight dining items such as William Edwards plates, soup bowls, cups, saucers and even a butter dish for reasonable prices."
It added: "Those who want to take it a step further can pick up bread baskets, hot towels (which naturally arrive cold), hot towel plates, champagne flutes, coasters and even the Club World casserole dish."
The sale began on Monday, August 23 and purchases are done online.
Boeing 747 fleet retirement
Among those sold by British Airways are collector's items from its Boeing 747 fleet, which the airline retired in July.
In a statement during that time, British Airways said it will retire its entire Boeing 747 fleet due to the sharp decline in air travel amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The British airline is the world’s largest operator of the 747 jumbo jets, having 31 aircraft in its fleet.
A spokesman for the airline said: "It is with great sadness that we can confirm we are proposing to retire our entire 747 fleet with immediate effect."
"It is unlikely our magnificent ‘queen of the skies’ will ever operate commercial services for British Airways again due to the downturn in travel caused by the Covid-19 global pandemic," the spokesman continued.
The 747 planes comprise around 10% of the airline's entire fleet. It originally planned to retire the 747 planes in 2024 but the travel downturn due to the pandemic forced it to undertake this earlier.
Fined for customer data breach
In October, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined British Airways £20 million for a data breach that affected over 400,000 customers.
The ICO fine was for a 2018 breach that affected both personal and credit card data of British Airways customers. The £20 million fine is significantly lower than the £183 million the ICO originally proposed in 2019.
In 2018, attackers were able to compromise British Airways’ systems
and then modified them to be able to gather customers’ details as they were input. The attack lasted for two months before a security researcher reported it to the airline and the airline notified the ICO.
Among the information taken by the hackers were log in, payment card and travel booking details as well name and address information. Investigators found that the carrier failed to place sufficient security measures, such as multi-factor authentication.
According to the ICO, the fine was smaller because "the economic impact of Covid-19" had been taken into account. Despite the significant decrease in the amount, it is still the largest penalty issued by the ICO to date.
