Eighth service added to BA World Cargo's Hong Kong freighter schedule (10/08/2005)

From 1 September 2005, British Airways World Cargo is adding an additional Hong Kong service to its freighter schedule, increasing its frequency from seven to eight services per week. This new service is the latest in a number of commitments the carrier has recently made to Asia Pacific, starting with the introduction of the first direct UK freighter service to Shanghai last September.

Introduced in response to customer demand, the new eastbound Hong Kong service will route via Frankfurt and Dubai, providing BA World Cargo's customers with additional capacity to key destinations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

On the return leg, the Hong Kong service will route via Delhi, increasing BA World Cargo's freighter frequency via Delhi to six per week and underlining BA World Cargo's commitment to India, a key expanding market in the Asia Pacific region.

As a result of the additional Hong Kong service and the changing pattern of demand for freighter uplift, BA World Cargo is reducing its Johannesburg rotation from two to one service per week, which will now route direct to Vitoria. Consequently, BA World Cargo will no longer serve Lusaka on its freighter schedule. This change is effective from 11 August 2005.

BA World Cargo will continue to provide in excess of 450 tonnes of capacity a week on its Johannesburg and Cape Town routes through a mixture of freighter and line flights. This capacity will increase to more than 550 tonnes later this year with the addition of five new line flights to Cape Town as part of the winter 2005/06 schedule.

Keith Packer, Senior Vice President Commercial said: "The new service to Hong Kong will benefit customers throughout our global network. Frankfurt, Dubai, Hong Kong and Delhi are key destinations, which will be strengthened by the additional capacity.

"We are a global carrier, which means that making changes to our schedule is a delicate balancing act. We constantly review our network to make sure that we are operating the right capacity in the right places at the right frequency to meet customer demand. To ensure the long term viability of our operation and secure future investment in our business for the benefit of customers our services need to be economically sustainable. The changes we are making to our freighter schedule are a result of weighing up these options."