BA to Launch Flights to Austin, Texas

British Airways is to launch direct flights to Austin, Texas, in 2014.

Starting in early March 2014 with five flights a week before moving to daily flights on 5 May, the airline’s brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner with its three-cabin layout, will serve the route to the Texan capital.

Lynne Embleton, British Airways’ director of strategy, said, “The addition of the Airbus A380s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners to our fleet enables us to start new routes and increase services to a number of our destinations.”

The summer 2014 schedule, which starts from 30 March 2014, will see a number of increases in long-haul flying to a variety of destinations.

Flights to Seoul in South Korea, where the airline started flying to in December 2012, will increase from six services a week to daily.

The airline is also significantly increasing flights to Accra in Ghana. From the start of the Winter 2013 season, an additional three flights a week are being added, bringing the total number of weekly services up to 10. From Summer 2014, a larger four-cabin Boeing 747 aircraft will replace one of the current Boeing 777s currently on the route.

British Airways is set to increase connections from summer 2014 between London and Tel Aviv when it introduces a daily wide-bodied four-cabin Boeing 777-200 to the route, replacing one of the Airbus A321 aircraft. The B777 offers four cabins: First, Club World (business class), World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and World Traveller (economy). The flights will also switch from Terminal 1 to Terminal 5 when they arrive at Heathrow.

Premium customers will also, for the first time, be able to fly in the airline’s First cabin between London and Jeddah when a four-cabin Boeing 777 replaces the existing three-cabin Boeing 767 service.

Seattle flights will also increase from ten to 11 flights a week from summer 2014.

Customers to Entebbe will be able to take advantage of much-improved flight times and an increase in services from three to four flights a week.

These changes to Heathrow flights are in addition to the airline’s long-haul schedule from Gatwick which will see an increase from ten to thirteen flights a week to Orlando, six to seven flights a week to St Lucia, twice to three times a week to Punta Cana, five to six a week to Antigua and three to four a week to Kingston thanks to the addition of another Boeing 777 to the Gatwick fleet.

British Airways has ordered 24 787s, which will arrive over the next four years. The airline has also ordered 12 A380s and six additional 777-300ERs. Over the next 12 months, it will take delivery of a new aircraft at the rate of one a fortnight.