British Airways to start daily service to Las Vegas

By Richard N. Velotta

Sunday, May 17, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

UPDATED STORY: Vegas officials courted British Airways for a decade

British Airways, an airline that annually flies 36 million passengers and has flights connecting six continents, will begin daily service between London’s Heathrow International Airport and Las Vegas this fall.

Officials with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, McCarran International Airport and the airline are expected to announce details of the new service on Monday.

British Airways would become the third air carrier to offer nonstop flights between Europe and Las Vegas. Britain’s Virgin Atlantic offers daily round trips between London’s Gatwick International Airport and McCarran and German discount carrier Condor Flugdienst flies twice a week between Frankfurt and Las Vegas.

One other British airline that flew Las Vegas routes, British Midland, discontinued flights from Manchester last month.

Great Britain is the No. 3 provider of foreign tourists to Las Vegas behind Canada and Mexico, according to the LVCVA.

British Airways would be making its first foray into Las Vegas. The airline already has flights to 18 airports in the United States, including Phoenix Sky Harbor International, Denver International, Los Angeles International, San Francisco International and Seattle-Tacoma International in the West.

Most of the airline’s business is international flying with 143 destinations in 69 countries. Owned by private investors, BA has nearly 50,000 employees worldwide, with about 85 percent of them working in Great Britain. The airline’s primary hubs are Heathrow International, 14 miles from central London – the world’s third-busiest airport, but serving the largest number of international travelers – and Gatwick International, the second-busiest of London’s six airports.

BA is a bitter rival of Virgin Atlantic and its flamboyant chief executive, Richard Branson. Virgin has been unable to secure additional take-off and landing slots at busy Heathrow, one of the reasons Virgin has flown to and from Las Vegas from Gatwick. The two companies also have scuffled over a proposed BA alliance with American Airlines and Branson’s relationship with recently formed Virgin America.

Virgin Atlantic carried 287,146 passengers between London and Las Vegas in 2008, a 14 percent decline from the previous year. In that year, passenger traffic was down 7.7 percent at the airport to 44 million.

At Heathrow, British Airways dominates the airport’s new Terminal 5, which opened with great fanfare in March 2008. A technical glitch in the terminal’s baggage handling system led to 300 flight cancellations in the first five days of operation. Since the initial problems were fixed, Terminal 5 is acknowledged as one of the world’s best air passenger facilities.

British Airways’ fleet of 231 aircraft includes a mix of Boeing and Airbus jets. It includes 55 Boeing 747-400s, 40 Boeing 777-200 extended range jets and 21 Boeing 767-300 extended range jets, all with a range capable of making the flight from London to Las Vegas. The airline also has ordered 24 Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” jets and 12 Airbus A380s, the jumbo jet with two decks of passengers.