British Airways has opened its new lounge in Cape Town airport, which is double the size of the previous Terraces lounge.

It is designed to emulate the style of the airline’s Galleries lounges at Terminal 5 while showcasing the best of British and South African style.

The development comes ahead of Cape Town gaining an extra three Boeing 777-200ER flights a week from the airline through South Africa’s cooler winter season next year.

The new lounge, which is 680 square metres, is able to accommodate 148 customers and is zoned to enable them to work, relax or dine.

The space offers complimentary Wi-Fi and an ‘air printing’ facility which allows guests to print from their own device from anywhere in the lounge without having to connect to the printer.

Other facilities include showers to enable customers to freshen up prior to their flight and catering options developed with local menu providers.

A dedicated area will showcase the best of wines from the Cape region and wine-tastings will be offered on selected departure dates.

The space has been designed by British Airways lounge development team working together with Tonic design, a Johannesburg based design agency using local features such as a tiled floor in the traditional herringbone pattern as well as the latest surface finishes from Giles Miller.

The fabrics used within the lounge are designed by Osbourne & Little and showcase the best of British textiles.

The airline will also be using the space to showcase work by up-and-coming South African artists.

The lounges will be available to British Airways First and Club World customers, Executive Club Gold and Silver members and oneworld frequent flyers with Emerald and Sapphire status.

Richard Tams, British Airways’ head UK&I sales, said: “This new, much larger lounge, which is part of our £5bn investment in products and services to benefit our customers, will offer our guests all the facilities we know they value such as the ability to work, relax, dine and freshen-up.”