BA bolsters leisure destinations from Heathrow

Seven new leisure destinations will be served from the airline's main London hub.

They include Pula in Croatia which will be served twice a week from July 1.

Brindisi in Italy and Zante in Greece also gain two flights a week from June 3.

Twice weekly flights will serve the French cities of Montpelier and Nantes from May 3 and March 28 respectively.

Tallinn in Estonia will gain two flights a week from March 28 together with Murcia in Spain.

The new short-haul routes join already the already announced flights to New Orleans from March 27 and Santiago in Chile from January 4.

However, a service to Chengdu in China is being dropped.

BA is also introducing flights from Gatwick to Oakland for San Francisco four days a week from March 28.

The move will pitch BA head to head with Norwegian on the route to the US west coast – its first to California from Gatwick.

One-way fares start at £189 on the service which will be flown by a Boeing 777-200ER.

Oakland airport is a 30 minute train ride from San Francisco or 34 minutes drive.