British Airways will provide more than 1,000 extra seats a week for its Riyadh to London service from Oct. 28.
BA will use a larger Boeing 747 on the route rather than the smaller Boeing 777. In addition, a new schedule is to be introduced and flights will arrive at Heathrow in the early morning, enabling customers to land in time for a full working day in London and increasing opportunities for connecting flights.
Following customer feedback, BA’s Jeddah service will operate from Jeddah to London on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
From Sept. 16 British Midland International’s Riyadh and Jeddah flights will stop as British Airways will be serving these routes, while due to poor revenue performance bmi’s services to Dammam will also be suspended.
In addition to the new timetable for Jeddah and Riyadh, from Oct. 28 British Airways will operate a new timetable to former bmi locations Almaty, Amman, Baku, Beirut and Freetown.
Tbilisi, which will now become a direct route, will move over to BA from Oct. 13.
Due to the volume of changes being made to BA’s network for winter 2012, schedule changes will be amended on ba.com over the next few days.
The airline is recommending customers recheck flights to ensure they have the latest timings and terminal details.
Paolo De Renzis, regional commercial manager for the Middle East, said: “For Jeddah we will now operate on days that make better commercial sense for our customers flying into London.
“The new Thursday departure has been introduced following customer feedback so this will be a popular service.
“The increased capacity and new timetable gives business and leisure customers the opportunity to connect with British Airways’ extensive global network from Heathrow.
“Plus, our customers can benefit from a generous 23 kg luggage allowance, free online check-in and seat selection 24 hours before departure and complimentary food and drink on board.
“Saudi Arabia continues to be a strategically important market for British Airways and we are committed to flying from Saudi Arabia.”
