British Airways (BA) has announced that it will begin flying to New Orleans next spring. Service to BA’s hub at London Heathrow will begin March 27. The airline will offer four flights a week on its 214-seat Boeing 787-8 “Dreamliner” aircraft, which is smaller than the carrier’s wide-body aircraft used on other long-haul routes. The Dreamliner has enabled BA to scheduled service to smaller U.S. markets, where demand is not as great as it is from and to major U.S. gateways. BA said the new service will enable passengers from New Orleans to connect via Heathrow to 130 other cities in Europe and other points beyond.
Last June, the German airline Condor—it is a part of the Thomas Cook Group— announced that it will begin seasonal nonstop service from New Orleans to Frankfurt starting next summer, meaning that BA will be the first international carrier to launch non-stop, Europe-to-New Orleans service.
While New Orleans has non-stop international flight connections to the Caribbean, Central America and Toronto, it has not had non-stop long-haul international service since the 1970s, when the now-defunct National Airlines flew non-stop between New Orleans and Amsterdam.
