As some have noted, British Airways will be introducing their new Airbus A380 on the London – Johannesburg run from February 2014 onwards.
This will now have an impact, as BA will be reducing the number of flights from 30th March 2014. The new timetable for that route looks something like this:
London to Johannesburg
BA055 DEPART LHR 19:10 ARRIVE JNB 06:55+1
BA057 DEPART LHR 21:20 ARRIVE JNB 09:05+1
BA055 Operates Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday
and Sunday with an Airbus A380.
BA055 Operates Tuesday with a Boeing 747-400
BA057 Operates Daily with a Boeing 747-400
Johannesburg to London
BA056 DEPART JNB 1920 ARRIVE LHR 0515+1
BA054 DEPART JNB 2045 ARRIVE LHR 0645+1
BA056 Operates Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday
and Sunday with an Airbus A380.
BA056 Operates Wednesday with a Boeing 747-400
BA054 Operates Daily with a Boeing 747-400
New timetable commences 30th March 2014
With a capacity increase like this and putting on an A380 on this route, this is allowing British Airways to reduce from 17 round trips a week to 14 trips.
BA are due to commence Airbus A380’s operations on the LHR-JNB from 12th February 2014 with a 3 times operated flight, ramping up to 6 times a week from 10th March 2014.
It’s swings and roundabouts with this. Whilst frequency has dropped by 3 flights a week, the capacity of the A380 should mitigate this loss.
And also, it frees up three valuable slot pairs a week at Heathrow Airport….