British Airways is to expand its flights to Africa using the Heathrow slots acquired through the purchase of Bmi.
BA is to add a fourth weekly frequency from Heathrow to Sierra Leone and Liberia in west Africa. The move follows the introduction of extra flights to both Nairobi and Johannesburg.
The carrier will also increase services to the Moroccan destinations of Marrakech and Agadir for next winter. BA is adding a fourth weekly flight from Heathrow to Tripoli from September 2 as well.
Gavin Halliday, BA’s general manager for Africa and Europe, said: “The acquisition of Bmi has enabled us to expand our flying programme in Africa to serve 18 routes in 15 countries.
“We now fly to more places, more often than we ever have before in the 80 years we have served the continent. These flights link growing African destinations to London and provide onward connections to the world’s business capitals.”
The extra west African flight from Heathrow to Freetown and Monrovia will operate on Friday from 16.00. It will start on October 31 using a Boeing 767 with three cabins: economy, premium economy and Club World. The route was only launched in November 2012.
Ian Petrie, regional commercial manager for Africa, added: “It is unusual to add more flights so soon after starting a new route, but we’re responding to strong demand in these fast-growing west African economies.”
BA has added three extra flights from Heathrow to Johannesburg (on Monday, Thursday and Saturday) on top of the existing double-daily services, while Nairobi services have risen to eight per week with a second flight on Sunday.
Flights to Marrakech will be increased from daily to 10 per week from October while there will also be a third weekly service to Agadir.
ba.com