Ally

British Airways has ended direct services from London to the Zimbabwean capital Harare for commercial reasons.

The airline said it had been suffering losses on the route and costs were spiralling, as well as the difficulty of getting aviation fuel in Zimbabwe.

From 28 October passengers travelling from Heathrow will be routed to Harare via Johannesburg with BA franchise partner Comair.

BA also said it was expanding its US flights from next spring.

The company will take advantage of the new transatlantic "open skies" policy.

The deal agreed between the US and Europe will, from the end of March, see more flights allowed across the Atlantic and more carriers able to use Heathrow for these flights.

From 30 March the carrier will move its Dallas Fort Worth and Houston services from Gatwick to Heathrow and increase frequencies from Heathrow to New York, Seattle and Washington DC as well as those from Gatwick to Orlando.

Next summer BA will be offering 41 daily flights to 18 destinations across the US.

It is suspending flights between Heathrow and Detroit from 30 March.

On the same day flights to Algiers, Algeria, currently operating from Gatwick will move to Heathrow, while flights to Warsaw, Poland, will move from Heathrow to Gatwick.

There will be a new short-haul route from Gatwick to Genoa, Italy starting on 4 April.

A BA statement announcing its decision to suspend direct flights to Harare said: "This is a commercial decision. The route has been running at a loss for some time and our costs on the route have been spiralling.

"Comair flies daily to Johannesburg from where we have 14 flights each week.

"This is not a sudden decision and we have been reviewing the route for some time.

"There will be an orderly transition of the service before the schedule changes in late October."

(BBC)