16 Nov 2011

George Gray's complaints about BA flights are dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority. Mr Gray alleged that he couldn't select seating of his choice without paying an additional R283/seat, and couldn't utilise his BA Miles in 2 instances. BA's Conditions of Carriage state that where it issues “a ticket without a reservation being specified on it, you may make a reservation later but whether you will be able to do so will depend on our tariff and whether a seat is available on your chosen flight”, and its Executive Club bookings are subject to availability and cannot be waitlisted.

Nov 2011

BA introduces a bronze tier into its Executive Club, offering qualifying members a 25% tier bonus, seat selection 7 days prior to departure and a business-class check-in.

31 Oct 2011

British Airways changes from 13 Cape Town to London flights a week, to double daily. At the same time, it changes to Boeing 747-400 aircraft, making it the only airline offering a first class service on the route.

11 Aug 2011

BA runs a pilot recruitment program on Youtube: "This is a very exciting time for BA. We're entering a phase of growth with new aircraft coming into service, near products for our customers, and new routes. This is British Airways' biggest pilot recruitment drive in over a decade. Over the next 5 years we aim to recruit more than 800 pilots. The cost of professional pilot training is in excess of a hundred thousand pounds. The future pilot programs enables anybody from any background regardless of their financial background to pursue their aspiration to be a pilot with British Airways".

20 Jun 2011

Comair British Airways reduces its Joburg to Dar es Salaam flights from 5 to 3 a week.

1 Jul 2011

BA starts offering double-daily flights between Johannesburg and Nelspruit Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport. Comair’s Executive Manager for Network Development and Alliance, Stuart Cochrane, said that “It is traditionally a popular route for the local and international tourism market, and we’ve seen an increase in demand from business travelers, which necessitated the revision of our schedule in order to accommodate this growing market.”

1 Sep 2011

British Airways planned to commence flights from Johannesburg Lanseria to Maputo (8 return flights a week) and Gaborone (7 return flights a week) from 30 May 2011, but postponed the launch to 1 Sep 2011: “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.” said Executive Manager for Network Development and Alliances at Comair, Stuart Cochrane.

Original info

Sixty six seat ATR72-212 Turboprop aircraft are used, leased from Solenta Aviation (a privately owned support services airline flying turbo-prop aircraft). Stuart Cochrane, a Comair executive, said that "This will add huge value to our customers travelling on these new routes by allowing them to complete a full day's work in the countries and return on the same day without having to incur accommodation expenses. We believe our partnership with Solenta Aviation who has an outstanding reputation of operating turboprop aircraft in the industry will continue to grow to include additional aircraft and more routes from both Lanseria and other potential hubs within southern Africa in the future. We are confident that the implementation of this first phase of expansion to our African network will be well-received by our customers and provide them with an alternative to current regional flights operating from OR Tambo International Airport."

27 Mar 2011

Kulula flights on the Cape Town - Port Elizabeth - Durban route are taken over by British Airways.

2 Nov 2010

BA commences 5-weekly Johannesburg-Dar es Salaam flights, to be sold through the Kulula website.

4 May 2010

BA starts Johannesburg-Nelspruit flights in Boeing 737-300 aircraft .

22 Dec 2009

The threatened date of a British Airways strike for 12 days, which was ruled illegal on the 17th Dec 2009.

16 Oct 2009

BA offer to fly from Johannesburg or Cape Town to London from R4,380.

7 Oct 2009

BA introduces a system whereby you have to pay for reserving a BA seat in advance.

13 Sep 2009

British Airways decreases its flights from London to Johannesburg from 19 back to 14 flights.

Jun 2009

Asheley Cowen, the BA general manager for Asia-Pacific & Africa, announces that BA has gained an additional 4% of the UK - South Africa flight market by introducing more flights (it increased its frequency of flights between London & Johannesburg from 14 to 19 on 1 May 2009).

11 May 2009

BA-56, a Boeing 747-400 en-route from Johannesburg to London, dumps fuel and returns to Johannesburg after 2 reverse thrusters are indicated unlocked after takeoff (engineers later determined that the indications were false).

1 May 2009

BA increases its weekly flights between London Heathrow and Johannesburg from 14 to 19 flights.

Dec 2008

It's announced that British Airways will be the official sponsor of the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa in 2009. BA will fly the team and the coaching staff to South Africa and within South Africa (through Comair).

12 Nov 2008

Flight BA6409 from Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport to Cape Town, lands without its flaps down. The Boeing 737-400 first aborted landing when it found it could not extend its flaps to landing position, and diverted to near Robben Island where they dumped fuel and tried to fix the problem. When the problem persisted it landed with slats and first stages of flaps, but not landing flaps (which meant a much higher landing speed). The plane landed safely and nobody was injured.

29 Jul 2008

British Airways PLC & Iberia announce that they are in merger talks.

18 Jun 2008

British Airways plane slips off runway at Durban Airport.

20 Jan 1932

The first service from London to Cape Town, as an Imperial Airways (the predecessor to British Airways) biplane lands in Cape Town after a flight from London. The plane was carrying mail.