London December 18, 2002: Festive flyers are heading for an early getaway this Christmas with more than 300,000 British Airways passengers flying out of London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports in the week leading up to Christmas. The busiest days for travel are this Friday, December 20 and Saturday, December 21, with around 100,000 travellers jetting off to warmer climes.

The most popular destination world-wide is once again New York, followed closely by Miami and Los Angeles.

The Caribbean is proving the most popular destination with British Airways Holiday customers. Barbados, Antigua and St Lucia are currently topping the charts. Both Concorde services to Barbados on December 21 & 22 are fully booked.

Closer to home, this year’s number one European top spot is Rome. New entries into this year’s top five shorthaul destinations are Athens, Larnaca and Lisbon.

While most people are enjoying the festivities, thousands of BA employees will be on hand over the Christmas period to give passengers a merry send off. On Christmas Day alone British Airways will be operating 60 services out of London Heathrow.

More than 1,000 catering staff will be working around the clock over the holiday period to ensure that festive flyers will enjoy a traditional Christmas lunch of turkey with all the trimmings. Around 20,000 dinners will be enjoyed onboard accompanied by more than150,000 mince pies over the festive period.

Last minute Christmas shoppers will be able to purchase a selection of festive gifts from our ‘Shopping the World’ brochure. For younger flyers ‘Freezy’ the snowman and ‘Antlers’ the reindeer are sure to be a big Christmas favourite. For those looking for an alternative to the traditional Christmas meal our ‘Christmas cooking around the world’ cookery book will offer some great new Yuletide recipes.

Young flyers will be in for a treat this Christmas with the introduction of our new cartoon channel in association with Cartoon Network. The more mature passengers will be able to enjoy film previews ahead of UK cinema release with Clint Eastwood starring in his new movie ‘Blood Work’.

Christmas is always a busy time for British Airways World Cargo, and this year is no exception.
Electrical gifts will be found under the tree this Christmas with over 75 tonnes of Plasma TVs, LCD TVs and digital cameras transported from Japan to the UK.

New Year revellers will be able to toast in 2003 with the finest malt whiskey as around 30 tonnes are transported from the UK to US destinations.

And finally, British Airways World Cargo will be bringing cheer to the dinner table for the expatriate community in Lagos, delivering around a tonne of brussel sprouts and parsnips in time for Christmas dinner.

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