British Airways launches daily US-UK flight from London to Las Vegas

British Airways is all set to start daily direct flights to Las Vegas, USA from London, from October 25, 2009. The British Airways London-Las Vegas service will operate between McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and London’s Heathrow Airport. This would be the airline’s first flight to Las Vegas.

British Airways already operates flights from 18 cities in the United States to the UK.

The roundtrip fares for the British Airways London-Las Vegas flights will start at $460, apart from fees and taxes.

British Airways spokesman John Lampl, was quoted as saying, “We think there is going to be plenty of business out there to come to Las Vegas,” He said. “We’ve got to get people moving again.”

Las Vegas’ Visitors’ bureau vice president Cathy Tull has said that bringing British Airways to Las Vegas is the result of a decade’s work.

“You need to convince the route planner the route can make enough money to pay for itself,” she said.

Tull now believes that expanding into the European Union market would be a lot easier. “That’s what makes it such a big deal,” she said. “The opportunity for us in the European Union market just exploded with this.”

British Airways said its passengers will be able to connect to Las Vegas with less than two hours of waiting time, at London’s Heathrow Airport, from 35 cities that include Rome, Prague, Stockholm and Paris.

British Airways will use a Boeing 777 with 274 seats for the service. To add to the travelers’ comfort, 24 of these seats would be ‘world traveler plus’ seats and 36 would be business class seats that recline to 180 degrees.

Randall Walker, director of McCarran International Airport believes that this is a confident move given the current economic situation.

“Airlines don’t come into a market, particularly with daily service, without looking at the data,” Walker said.

The British Airways London-Las Vegas flight will arrive at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas at 5:10 p.m, and take off from the Las Vegas airport to Heathrow, at 7 p.m.

British Airways will be the second UK-based airline to provide daily services to Las Vegas, once the service is launched.

The other airline that flies to Las Vegas is the Virgin Atlantic, which flies to the Gatwick Airport in Las Vegas.

Even though the economic crisis has affected the aviation business considerably, Lampl sounded positive regarding the new venture, “This opens the door to growth. You’ll have a lot of people who like Las Vegas, who have never been to Las Vegas, who now have an easy connection.”

Reports say that, currently, travelers spend $1,200 to get to Las Vegas. This move has also given easy connectivity to Las Vegas to travelers around the world.

The British airlines currently connects to 143 destinations in 69 countries. The airlines has a fleet of 231 aircraft including Boeing 747-400s, Boeing 777-200 extended range jets and Boeing 767-300 extended range jets.

The airlines has further ordered 24 Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” jets and 12 Airbus A380s.