British Airways will resume a year-round direct daily service from London Heathrow to Barbados on October 17, following a 15-year hiatus.
In recent times Virgin Atlantic has been the only airline to offer a daily direct service from London Heathrow, with British Airways offering a seasonal daily service from London Gatwick.
BA’s new Heathrow service will be operated by a four-class B777-200 aircraft and is expected to boost traffic to the Caribbean island.
Announcing the new service, Barbados’ minister of tourism and international transport Lisa Cummins said:
“For more than 15 years, Barbados has been engaging British Airways on the re-establishment of London Heathrow as the gateway to Barbados, following the retirement of its Concorde service.
“We are thrilled therefore to see this finally come to fruition as it opens the door for us, quite literally, for growth opportunities in cities and continents that were once out of our reach.”
The flight is scheduled to depart from the UK in the afternoon, allowing passengers to make use of connections within BA’s European network.
“Post-Covid-19, with British Airways seeing the contraction of various routes, the opportunity presented itself for this service and we were determined to secure it,” said Cummins.
“Understanding the challenges currently faced by our industry, it is critical for us to be both smart and aggressive with our growth strategy, and this represents that.
“The UK continues to be our primary source market. In 2019, Barbados reported record arrivals from the UK—234,658 arrivals of the destination’s overall 712,945. We therefore expect that this addition will bring us even more favourable results as we look confidently ahead to our future.”
British Airways recently announced the launch of another new route to the Caribbean, with London Gatwick to Montego Bay flights starting from October 13.
