BA is to launch a twice a day business class only service between London city Airport
and New York.
The service will start next year using two A318 aircraft with 32 seats.
At the same time, the UK carrier announced a 34.9% rise in its pre-tax profits from £584m to £788 million for the last nine months of 2007.
Willie Walsh, BA's ceo, said: "This niche service will fly passengers between the heart of the two largest financial centres in the world.
"London City airport is located minutes away from some of our key corporate customers and is in one of the fastest growing areas of the capital.
"We will offer a 15 minute check-in for customers in both London and New York.
"The London - New York route is a key market for us and these flights will be in addition to our current Heathrow schedule from where we fly eight times a day to JFK and three times a day to Newark.
"As well as the business market, we are confident that there will also be a demand from premium leisure customers for this service."
The nine month figures showed an operating profit of £734m compared with £571m in 2006, a rise of 28.5% and an operating margin of 11.1%, compared to 8.7% in 2006.
The airline said the rise in profits comes just as it is ready to move into the new Terminal Five at Heathrow Airport at then end of March as well as the launch of its new long haul OpenSkies EU-US services.
Mr Walsh said: "This is another good set of results despite soaring fuel costs and difficulties in the market.
"Revenue up some 1% and a strong cost performance has led to an operating profit up 28.5%.
"While fuel costs in the first six months were down £36 million, they have soared £72 million in the third quarter.”
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