BA to raise winter schedule capacity

Europe's biggest airline, British Airways, is to raise its capacity in its winter 2003 schedule by about three to four per cent compared to last year. This is despite plans to suspend some routes.

Martin George, director of marketing and commercial development at the airline, said the suspension of some routes was part of its strategy to focus on those that were commercially viable. The airline has been cutting loss-making routes within Europe.

He said in a statement that although some routes are being suspended, the airline is starting three new European services and adding extra frequencies to their Caribbean routes.

BA will also continue to scale back operations at London's Gatwick airport, with services to Bremen and Brussels suspended from September 1, and Düsseldorf from October 1.

BA, who cut thousands of jobs and simplified its fleet in response to the airline industry downturn over the past two years, has said it would also suspend two Heathrow services - Zagreb from September 14 and San Diego from October 26.