Hong Kong, 11 December, 2001: British Airways today announced that it will be suspending its services from Hong Kong to Manila and Taipei from 4th March 2002. The suspension of these routes represents part of a series of measures which have been taken by British Airways to address the downturn in the airline industry in recent months and is in line with the airline’s strategy of reducing capacity.

British Airways has also announced that it will be suspending flights BA11 and BA12, the three times weekly terminator service from London to Singapore. These flights will be suspended from summer 2003.

The airline will continue to operate twice-daily flights from London to Singapore.

Mark Russell, General Manager East Asia for British Airways, said “The current difficult market conditions for the whole of the aviation industry means that we must take firm action in order to protect our business. Despite the suspension of our flights to Manila and Taipei, British Airways remains committed to maintaining our network in Asia. We will continue to offer our passengers efficient and convenient services to and from London to these destinations via connections with our oneworld alliance partner over Hong Kong.”

Services affected by the suspension are the 4 times per week flights between Hong Kong and Manila, and the 3 times per week flights between Hong Kong and Taipei, operated by British Asia Airways.

Passengers who have already booked to fly with British Airways on these routes after 4th March 2002, will be automatically transferred to flights operated by British Airways’ oneworld alliance partner.

“British Airways will continue to serve our customers in the Philippines and Taiwan through our sales and marketing offices based in the two countries. Frequent connections exist between these markets and our double daily 747 service from Hong Kong to London, meaning that we can offer fast easy connections to London and beyond via Hong Kong. We will be keeping these routes under constant review in the future so that we can consider resuming services when market conditions allow,” Mr. Russell added.

For further information, passengers can call their local travel agent or British Airways on 0845 7799977

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