BA will drop Detroit-Heathrow route next spring, expand others

As part of a route reshuffling timed to coincide with the beginning of an aviation “open skies” agreement between the U.S. and the European Union, British Airways said it will discontinue its 51-year-old route between Detroit and London Heathrow on March 30, 2008. A BA spokesman told USA Today the decision was based on declining traffic and said the route has lost money for several years. That will leave Northwest’s Gatwick service as the only non-stop London route from Detroit. In addition to its previously announced plan to shift its Detroit and Houston flights from London Gatwick to Heathrow next March, BA said it will also increase frequencies on other U.S. routes, boosting New York-JFK flights from 51 a week to 55; Seattle-LHR from 10 to 13 a week; Washington Dulles-Heathrow from 21 to 24; and Orlando-LHR from seven to 10. In foreign markets, BA said it will also transfer its London-Algiers flights from Gatwick to Heathrow, but will switch London-Warsaw service from Heathrow to Gatwick.