Transportation:

New British Airways flight will link LV with Europe, Middle East and Africa

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Photo courtesy of British Airways

Getting to London: A showgirl appears in the engine cowling of a British Airways aircraft as part of a campaign to promote the airline’s new Las Vegas flight.

Fri, Oct 23, 2009 (3 a.m.)

Beyond the Sun

Virgin Atlantic Airways has been flying Boeing 747s between London and Las Vegas since 2006. So why should anyone get excited about British Airways offering the same air service beginning tomorrow?

Connections.

When the United Kingdom’s flag-carrier airline makes its first 11-hour flight to McCarran International Airport, it will connect Las Vegas with more than just London.

Because British Airways has dozens of flights to Europe, Africa and the Middle East every day, Las Vegas will be a one-stop plane trip from every major capital in Europe and cities in the Middle East and Africa.

“Not counting the Western Hemisphere, our mainline service goes into 120 cities,” said John Lampl, British Airways vice president of corporate communications for the Americas.

Although rival Virgin Atlantic connects with some of the same routes with code-share partners, its network isn’t nearly as extensive as British Airways.

“British Airways is a great brand to line up with,” said Cathy Tull, senior vice president of marketing for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “The Virgin flights are great for us, and I think they are as happy with us as we are with them. But I think British Airways will provide us with another type of customer.”

Tull said the British Airways flight would add “45 important Las Vegas markets and 16 specific cities with terrific connections.”

Among the important connections are those within Great Britain. British Airways offers flights to and from Manchester from which rival carrier bmi had nonstop flights to Las Vegas. In April bmi, under new management, discontinued those flights even though Tull said the loads from Manchester had been strong.

One reason for British Airways’ better connectivity is its base at the new Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow International Airport, the world’s busiest for international traffic and 14 miles west of London.

Virgin, by comparison, flies its Las Vegas route from Gatwick International Airport, 28 miles south of London. Public transportation makes Heathrow more convenient for Londoners, and Virgin has been trying for years to get more takeoff and landing slots there.

“I think the big news on this is the Terminal 5 connectivity we have,” Lampl said. “It’s now been open for over a year and a half.

“Two years ago British Airways was mired in baggage and transfer problems. Now, Heathrow is the jewel in the crown. We don’t even have a huge customer-relations team over there because the operation is so efficient.”

British Airways’ first Las Vegas flight is scheduled to arrive at McCarran at 7:25 p.m. after leaving Heathrow at 3:35 p.m. Flight 275 will use a twin-engine Boeing 777 with three compartments carrying 272 passengers. Routinely, British Airways’ London-Las Vegas flights will have 36 Club World (business class) seats, 24 World Traveler Plus (premium economy) seats and 212 World Traveler (economy) seats.

The return trip from Las Vegas, Flight 274, will leave McCarran daily at 9:20 p.m., arriving nine hours and 45 minutes later at 2:05 p.m. the next day London time.

Lampl said the first flight would use a special aircraft with four classes of service with 14 first-class seats, 48 Club World seats, 40 World Traveler Plus seats and 124 World Traveler seats.

The Club World section has seats that recline to flat beds and an on-demand entertainment system while the World Traveler Plus section has 38-inch-pitch seats and in-seat power for personal computers, and CD and DVD players.

Among the passengers on the first flight will be Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, chairman of the convention authority’s board; British Airways CEO Willie Walsh; authority President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter; Tull; and Vince Alberta, authority vice president of public affairs. The local contingent will be returning from a marketing blitz in London, and Walsh will get to see the newest destination on the airline’s route map and is expected to announce some introductory fares to generate interest in the Las Vegas-London flights.

Walsh also is hosting a lunch for more than 100 local businesspeople Oct. 26 to explain the new service and its benefits to the community.

The authority has been working to secure those benefits for years.

Las Vegas officials first traveled to the United Kingdom in 1999 to try to persuade British carriers to fly to McCarran. Virgin Atlantic offered the first nonstop London service when it began flying the route twice a week in 2000.

In 2006 the authority met again with British Airways and its London office kept up contact with the airline to gauge interest.

The courtship intensified this year, and the decision to start service was made about May. On May 8 British Airways officials requested a site visit and four days later they toured Las Vegas. On May 14 the authority was notified service would begin in October.

Tull says the service is important to Las Vegas because as room inventory grows, so will the need to branch into other markets.

“We have about 140,000 rooms today,” she said. “As we grow, we have to grow the pie of where visitors come from. What British Airways offers to us is an easy gateway into Europe.”

The international pie includes providing better access to some of Las Vegas’ internationally acclaimed trade shows such as the Consumer Electronics Show, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, Conexpo and events at the World Market Center.

The authority figures that each nonstop flight to Las Vegas is worth about $260,000 in nongaming revenue for the community. Based on flights being 80 percent full, that accounts for $96 million a year.

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