For 76 year-old Renu Mazumdar, life will not be the same again. Twice every year, for the last 15 years, she would board BA 146 and fly non-stop to London to meet her son Kallol Majumdar, a practising doctor in the Isle of Wight. “I need a wheelchair to get into the aircraft. The 11-hour journey was in itself quite an ordeal. With British Airways discontinuing its flight to London, I do not know how I will manage a stopover journey, the only option left now,” says Majumdar.

The withdrawal was announced in November last, when the airlines cited “route rationalisation” as the reason for its decision. In spite of a load factor of around 70 per cent, heavily

discounted ticketing, prompted by Lufthansa’s introduction of the direct Kolkata-Frankfurt flight in 2006, the revenue has shrunk.

A few moments before the final touchdown on March 29, the pilot of the Boeing-777 announced that this would be the British Airways’ last flight to Kolkata. “A significant section of the passengers were elderly people with roots in Kolkata, who hastily preponed their return from London because this was the last available direct flight,” said Kavita Jhunjhunwala, a business traveller, who arrived by the last flight in early hours of March 29.

Many travellers have their BA memories. Corporate traveller Niraj Basotia recalls, “I was booked on Calcutta-Heathrow with a connecting flight to Belgium. At the Heathrow Airport, I found that my luggage was not on the flight.” Having reached Belgium with just his laptop, he had to purchase everything from a business suit to toothbrush. He wrote a letter to the airline about the inconvenience faced. “Without asking for any clarification, they reimbursed my entire bill of Rs 30,000, besides gifting me a Harrington suit,” recalls Basotia.

With Air India having withdrawn its Kolkata-London direct flight in October last year, British Airways bidding goodbye to the city snapped the last direct connectivity to London. “The adieu by British Airways is a disaster for aviation in this sector. We will soon feel the repercussions,” says Anil Punjabi, Chairman (East) of the Travel Agents Federation of India. The flight with 239 passengers took off at 5.26 am. The visitors, who had come to see of relatives and friends, the passengers and the crew hoped that the airline would soon return to the City of Joy.

The journey

British Airways started flying to the city in 1932, but its operations have been intermittent. It stopped its direct service from Kolkata in 1985, but reintroduced it in 1993. In 2001, the airline decided to start a non-stop flight to London thrice a week. “I have been with British Airways for 13 years and visited Kolkata six times. The withdrawal is really sad. Hope we can come back soon,” said Chad Lochpawn, a cabin crew. The airline operates flights to and from five Indian cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad to London.