British Airways brings the Airbus A380 to Washington Dulles, adds three routes from London Gatwick

British Airways (London) yesterday (October 2) began flying its new 469-seat Airbus A380 aircraft between London Heathrow and Washington Dulles International Airport. This marks the first and only nonstop A380 service between the two nations’ capitals. The airline also officially unveiled its new, improved business and first class lounge for customers departing from Washington D.C.

British Airways will initially operate five A380 services a week from Washington Dulles. This will increase from the end of October to a daily A380 service, in conjunction with the daily flight BA 292, operated by a Boeing 747-400 and the thrice weekly flight BA 264, operated by a Boeing 777.

British Airways has ordered 12 A380s for delivery by 2016. The airline currently has six A380s in service. The first flight was operated with the pictured Airbus A380-841 G-XLEB.

British Airways currently flies its A380 aircraft from Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Johannesburg, with Singapore beginning on October 28 and San Francisco in April 2015.

In other news, British Airways has added another three new routes to its 2015 London Gatwick schedule. Seville in Spain, Funchal in Madeira and Las Palmas in Gran Canaria with the first flights from March 29, 2015.

The news follows announcements on eight other new London Gatwick routes, taking the total number of destinations British Airways flies to from London Gatwick to over 50 for Summer 2015.

From December this year, new winter sun and ski destinations will include Fuerteventura, Friedrichshafen and Grenoble.

Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands will operate from December 13 this year and other sunshine routes launching for summer 2015, will include Cagliari in Sardinia, Heraklion in Crete, Rhodes in Greece and Bodrum and Dalaman in Turkey.

The services to all three destinations will be served by a mixture of Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft from London Gatwick.

Top Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com (all others by BA). Airbus A380-841 G-XLEB (msn 121) taxies at Los Angeles to the gate.

Below Photo: The cabin of the Airbus A380: