British Airways will increase its South African services by another seven flights from April 2009 following successful bilateral talks between the South African and British governments.

This brings the number of flights the airline is able to operate between South Africa and the UK to 35 a week.

The additional services will operate on the busy Johannesburg-to-London route, increasing the existing double-daily schedule to triple-daily.

British Airways also flies directly between Cape Town and London twice a day during the peak South African summer tourism season, reverting to daily flights during winter.

"Conservatively the additional frequencies mean another 99 120 seats to South Africa each year and as many as 117 936 depending on the configuration of the aircraft we use," says Lin Glass, British Airways' general manager for South Africa, Mauritius and the Seychelles.

The extra frequencies will ease some of the existing pressure on the Johannesburg-to-London route and provide vital capacity ahead of the 2010 World Cup.

"This is good news for us and good news for our customers. More importantly sustained, scheduled air links between South Africa and its major tourism and business markets will enable it to capitalise on the opportunities that the World Cup provides," says Glass.