British Airways Routes from Lanseria to Gaberone and Maputo scheduled for September Launch

Comair Limited, operator of British Airways in South Africa and kulula.com, confirmed that the imminent commencement of its flights from Lanseria to Maputo in Mozambique and to Gaborone in Botswana on 30 May 2011 has been postponed, pending the finalisation of commercial terms with Lanseria International Airport, and a commitment from Lanseria to commence the building of a new runway and upgrade of the airport infrastructure. 


Comair, in partnership with Solenta Aviation recently introduced the first of three ATR turboprop aircraft earmarked for local and regional network growth into its growing fleet. The aircraft originally planned for the regional flights is currently deployed on the Johannesburg-Nelspruit route and performing well, providing the backdrop for Comair to assess the possible increase in capacity into Nelspruit as well as growing their domestic footprint to include other smaller domestic destinations.


Stuart Cochrane, Executive Manager for Network Development and Alliances at Comair says “We regret the decision to suspend the launch of our Gaborone and Maputo flights as our team has worked tirelessly to ensure that the new routes reach operational readiness in time, however we are extremely pleased with the current performance of the ATR aircraft and look forward to introducing additional routes utilising this equipment.”


Comair is now set to commence operations on the Maputo and Gaborone routes from 01 September 2011, and bookings for these new destinations are currently open for sale via ba.com, the British Airways Call Centre on 0860 I FLY BA (0860 4 359 22) or through travel agents.


Customers that have already booked and paid for their flights on these routes are being contacted and have been provided with the option for a full refund, or to change their flights to a date on or after 01 September 2011.