British Airways won’t just fly you on holidays - from tomorrow it will lend you the money to pay for it too.

The airline is offering customers loans from as little as £500 to £15,000 towards their holidays through some of its High Street travel shops. It is the first time any airline in the world has introduced such a financial service.

The loans will be either a fixed interest rate or with no interest charged at all if repaid in full after three months. Both options offer flexible repayment periods and a very competitive APR.

Research has shown that holidays are the third most popular reason for taking out loans after a car or home improvements.

Martin George, British Airways Director of Marketing, said: “British Airways is the first airline to pioneer travel loans. This is a unique new service which will make planning your flight or holiday easier than ever before.”

The new service called British Airways Travel Finance, will start to be available from April 6 at some of British Airways travel shops including Kingston, Birmingham, Bromley, Bristol, Edinburgh and Leeds. If successful it will be rolled out across the airline’s 23 travel shops in the UK.

The service has been developed to ensure a simple and fast approval process. Customers can budget repayments accurately and, in doing so, may decide to upgrade their initial holiday purchase based on the known and fixed monthly instalments. A payment protection plan is also available.

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