BA launches Gatwick/Cape Town flights for summer

“In addition to the Gatwick services we will also be operating two extra 747-400 services from Heathrow to supplement the normal double-daily schedule. These will fly during the particularly high-demand periods from 1-9 January and 3-27 February.

“During these periods we will be offering 6,345 seats a week to Cape Town, over 30% up on the capacity we flew last year. It is our biggest-ever schedule on the route,” says Sue Petrie, BA commercial manager for Southern Africa.

The airline will be using Boeing 777-200s for the Gatwick/Cape Town service. “These aircraft are ideal for busy leisure routes as they are configured with three cabins as opposed to our usual four,” she says. Without the extra cabin, the aircraft can carry 48 customers in Club World, 24 in World Traveller Plus and 203 in World Traveller.

“We’re helping a little and our marketing department has run a social media campaign feature pop-up events at busy railways stations to promote the Gatwick flights,” Petrie says.

“Incidentally we’ve also upped capacity to Johannesburg, where we operate 14 flights a day using a combination of A380s and Boeing 747-400s. By expanding the A380 services to 10 a week and using specially configured 747s we’ve grown our premium capacity on the route by 15%,” she says.