CAPE TOWN – British Airways (BA) is increasing its services between London and Cape Town by two flights a week from January next year, the airline announced on Thursday.
BA said the additional services would operate from Gatwick using Boeing 777-200 aircraft in a three-cabin configuration with 32 seats in Club World, 52 in World Traveller Plus and 252 in World Traveller.
This will bring to five the number of flights BA operates from Gatwick to Cape Town and increases its total number of flights between London and the Mother City to 19 a week.
Over the peak South African summer BA also doubled its schedule between Heathrow to Cape Town, offering two daily Boeing 747 services, with four cabins, including First.
“In total we’ll be offering 36 flights a week between the UK and South Africa. In addition to the 19 Cape Town services, we also fly double-daily to Johannesburg using our largest aircraft, the A380. We also fly directly between London and Durban three times a week,” says Cristina Graham, British Airways corporate commercial manager for Southern Africa.
The schedule increase comes as BA rolls out a £6.5 billion, five-year customer investment plan. As well as taking delivery of 73 new aircraft, it is also refurbishing its long-haul cabins, so they look and feel new. This includes the Boeing 777 fleet at London Gatwick, which has the new-generation World Traveller and World Traveller Plus seats, according to a statement released by the airline in Thursday.
The airline has also significantly refurbished its lounge at OR Tambo, redesigning it so it can comfortably host 247 customers and with a dedicated boutique dining space for First customers.
The additional flights between Gatwick and Cape Town will operate from 10 January 2021 until 24 March 2021.