British Airwaysis continuing to reaffirm itself as one of the largest airlines in Europe based on network scope. The carrier calls London home, and from its hub at London Heathrow Airport
, it serves a variety of destinations across six continents. And recently, the carrier revealed it will be maintaining capacity to South Africa this winter with two daily frequencies between its base and Johannesburg Airport
.
Photo: Philip Pilosian | Shutterstock
What is particularly notable about British Airways’ schedule is the equipment it will be deploying to South Africa. The carrier will fly its Airbus A380
, the largest commercial aircraft in the world, on both daily flights to Johannesburg. This announcement indicates strong demand between the two cities, and will allow British Airways to bolster connectivity through its Heathrow hub.
High capacity continues into the winter
British Airways deploys the A380 on both daily frequencies depending on the season and current demand. In the summer of 2025, the carrier will also deploy its superjumbo on both daily Johannesburg frequencies. Starting June 1, 2025, the A380 will be the sole aircraft operating the service for the summer season. Prior to this announcement, only one daily flight was flown by the A380, while the other was operated by one of the carrier’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
Despite added capacity this summer, a similar number of seats will be available in the winter thanks to the continued deployment of the A380. In the months leading up to December 2025, British Airways will maintain the number of seats it has available in the market. According to data from Cirium, an aviation data analytics provider, in October 2025, the carrier will offer 29,078 seats in total across 62 flights. While these numbers dip to 28,140 available seats and 60 flights in November, British Airways restores October frequencies for December 2025 and January 2026.
This is impressive growth compared to the carrier’s previous schedule for the same time frame. Each month will see a 30% increase in capacity. This indicates British Airways believes demand for flights to Johannesburg will remain strong, and it believes it can fill up its massive, 469-seat aircraft twice daily with feeder traffic from other parts of its network.
Photo: British Airways
The two outbound flights are BA56 and BA54. BA56 will depart London Heathrow at 19:45 local time, and arrive in South Africa at 5:00 local time. Meanwhile, BA 54 departs London at 22:05 and arrives at 7:35 local time. Each flight is blocked to take 11 hours and 5 minutes, and will arrive in the morning after the day it departed.
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British Airways’ A380 is massive
As mentioned, the Airbus A380 is the largest commercial aircraft in the world. According to British Airways, the carrier currently has 12 models of the aircraft in its fleet, which it uses on high-demand routes from London. British Airways configures these superjumbos to seat just under 500 people in a four-class layout: First, Club World, World Traveller Plus, and World Traveller.
First class is featured on the main deck of the A380. The cabin features 14 seats, all located at the front of the aircraft. Following this cabin is Club World, the carrier’s business class product. The airline has an impressive 97 of these seats, some of which are on the aircraft’s main deck and some on the upper deck. On the main deck, these seats are at the midsection of the aircraft, but on the upper deck, they are in the front.
Behind the airline’s most premium cabins, the airline has two offerings: World Traveller Plus and World Traveller. World Traveller Plus is the airline’s premium economy product. It has 55 seats available in the cabin, and the entirety of World Traveller Plus seats are located on the aircraft’s upper deck. World Traveller, its standard economy class, fills the back of both decks of the plane. British Airways offers 303 of these standard economy seats.
