British Airways announced Monday its latest schedule of 11 weekly flights between Beirut and London, increased as a result of escalating customer requests for a more frequent schedule.
The new schedule includes five night flights every day of the week, except for Thursday and Saturday, as well as four double daily flights operating on Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“The 11 flights, an increase from the four of our previous schedule, have been instituted as a result of customers requesting a wider choice on the route,” said Naji Mahdi, the airline’s area sales manager for the Levant and Africa.
“We hope to increase the number of flights to two daily in the future, but this will all depend on the demand,” for additional flights, Mahdi told the participants during the press conference held at the Gefinor Rotana Hotel in Beirut.
According to Mahdi, the airline expects an increase in the number of passengers this year.
Between April 2002 and March 2003, the airline took aboard 45,000 passengers with a schedule consisting of seven daily flights, including one additional flight per week. The figure represents 5 percent of the total airline market.
“We are expecting an increase of 10-15 percent this year,” Mahdi said.
The new schedule, which begisn at the end of May as part of the airline’s summer schedule, allows passengers to connect through the airline’s hub at Heathrow Airport in London, for same-day arrivals to North American destinations and to over 550 destinations in 134 countries, through British Airways’ alliance partners.
The new schedule commences as British Airways prepares for the re-launch of its Executive Club loyalty program service beginning in  July.
The service to London is operated on behalf of British Airways by the airline’s sole long-haul independent franchise partner, British Mediterranean Airways, using Airbus A320 and A321.
British Mediterranean, which started off with just
one flight a week to Lebanon back in 1997, now flies direct to 12 destinations with five flights a week.
“British Mediterranean plans to double the number of weekly flight to 12 by 2005,” said Mahdi.
British Airways, however, is not the only airline moving to meet the increasing needs of frequent flyers.
Lufthansa, the German airline, is also set to increase its number of flights to and from the region.
Sarkis Amoghlian, Lufthansa’s passenger sales manager, announced last week the airline’s new plans.
Compared to the previous schedule, which consisted of five weekly flights, and “realizing the increase in demand on the Frankfurt-Beirut-Frankfurt route, Lufthansa will fly daily to Lebanon as of May 26,” Amoghlian said.
The 40 percent increase in frequency comes as part of Lufthansa’s strategy to increase its activity in the Middle East.
The moves come at a time when for the last few weeks, the Severe Acute respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has grounded many operations to and from many Asian countries, but also western destinations such as Canada. ­ T.T.

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