BA Flight Arrives in Wrong City

The mistake was with the paperwork filed with ATC. Once they took-off the pilot had no choice but follow ATC's instructions.

A pilot can request a change to a flight plan at any time even in flight. The pilot received a flight plan for Edinburgh. With commerical airlines, the pilots don't come up with their flight plans, the airline's dispatch department does. Every airliner has a licensed dispatcher who plans the flights and watches it. The pilot will of course review it.

The flight was operated by Cityfler and not BA.

PIlots get a monthly schedule but sometimes changes are made on the day of flights. I have been on flights where the pilots are pulled from another flight to fly mine when the arriving flight with my pilots was late. My guess is the wrong flight plan was sent to pilots--to Edinburgh instead of Dusseldorf. It used to be that the pilots had to go into the terminal to print out their flight plans. They might see a discrepancy at the gate. Now it's done electronically either directly into the plane or onto the tablets the pilots use. The gate agents wouldn't be aware of the change only the pilots and FA's.

I was on a TAN SASA flight to TGU many years ago. The flight was IAH to SPS to TGU. It left Houston so late that they skipped SPS and went directly to TGU because they didnt like to land at TGU after dark. (THANK G-D) Then they flew on to SPS.

Don’t the pilots still announce the destination befor departure ? My last flight last year had the
“Ladies and Gentlemen this is your captain speaking on behavecof your aircrew I would like to Welcome you to Delta Flight 18 to Walla Walla Washington”. Or some such like it.
Point being they said the flight the airline and the destination. And if I heard Scotland when I am going to Germany I would be asking VERY loudly what is going on.

Admittedly it has been a while sense I have been on a puddle jumper operated by another airline and never in Europe so maybe they don’t?
If that is the case then I think they need to!

The announcement of "welcome to" doesn't come until the end of the flight.

Someone definitely dropped the ball on this one. I've flown Cityflyer but don't remember what was said.

"Welcome aboard! We have a nice surprise for you! We decided you would all enjoy Edinburgh more than Dusseldorf, so Scotland, here we come!"

Like I said almost every flight I have ever been on going back 40 plus years and as recently as last Sept usually (I would say alwas but frankly I didn’t pay that much attention to a lot of flights for work) have a basic intro from the Pilot about the flight the company the crew and the destination and expected flight time then the instruction to listen to the safety talk.
I thought this was standard but I guess not.

Maybe after the screw up they will add that bit to the requirements

The flight was operated by Cityfler and not BA.

Even more removed - it was operated by WDL Aviation under lease.

True.....I guess you really do get what you pay for. BA outsourced to Cityflyer who outsourced to WDL Aviation.

The Independent has come up with the reasons why this flight happened:

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ba-british-airways-passengers-london-city-wrong-airport-edinburgh-dusseldorf-a8839136.html

To quote one of the great thinkers of our time......Homer Simpson...…"DOH!"

I'm sorry. This story just cracks me up. What a story they all have...and hopefully a good giggle. I'm hoping the jokes were flying in that cabin for the rest of the trip.