BRITISH Airways will be starting its services to the Seychelles, offering more flights to Mauritius, with more seats on other routes as part of its African network expansion. This will include services to the Seychelles between March and October, which will be operated by the airlines newest fleet of aircraft, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, as well as expanding its three current Boeing 777 services to five, from Gatwick to Mauritius as from October.
The expansion within Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands comes after British Airways announced a multi-million-pound investment plan, with a focus on excellence in the premium cabins and more choice and quality for all its customers.
The Indian Ocean Islands are not the only place the airline is growing its presence. It is offering more seats to Lagos, replacing the daily Boeing 777 flight with a larger Boeing 747-400 aircraft, adding 511 seats a week on the route. The ‘Super High J’ aircraft is configured with a larger business class cabin than its other 747s and has 70 Club World seats.
From October, it will also add 680 more seats a week between London and Johannesburg, when it begins flying a double-daily A380 service. Other than Los Angeles, Johannesburg will be the only British Airways’ route with two daily A380s.
As from November, the daily London/Cape Town Boeing 747 service will increase to double daily for the South African summer season, and the airline will start operating three additional Boeing 777 services from Gatwick. It will also provide a number of extra services from Heathrow to meet demand over the New Year peak, Indaba, UK half term in February and Easter. ‘With the A380 services on Johannesburg and the expanded Cape Town schedule, we’ll be offering more seats to South Africa than we ever have before,’ says Sue Petrie, commercial manager Southern Africa.
The latest generation Wi-Fi will be available across the long-haul and short-haul fleets over the next two years.