British Airways, premier airline of the United Kingdom recently launched service to Chengdu with a panda plane. Apparently, Chengdu, the city in China is home to the world famous giant panda and the airline wanted to please the people with its unique offering. The airline specially painted its Boeing 777-200 plane to look like a panda.

This aircraft sports a huge smile like that of the cute animal. The panda plane will offer thrice-a-week service between London Heathrow and Chengdu. Interestingly the city is the carrier’s first new destination in China since launching service to Shanghai in 2005. The airline believes that mainland China comprises an important part of its itinerary and hence it is committed to serve the people with direct services. This plane comprises a seating capacity across four class including First, Club World (business class), World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and World Traveller (economy).

On the other hand, the airline is inching close to a new experiment. The popular European carrier plans to allow passengers automatically check-in on a trial basis. The airline wants to discard the conventional method of manual check-ins and pave way for automated check-ins instead. It therefore, plans to test its idea in the first phase with flights to Vienna, Copenhagen, Vancouver, Toronto, Rome Fiumicino, Mauritius, and Cancun. As per its strategy, passengers can proceed towards check-ins six days ahead of their departures. These travelers will receive confirmation and boarding passes 25 hours before takeoff.