British Airways plans three more London-Las Vegas flights

British Airways will expand its Las Vegas presence early next year with three additional seasonal flights between London's Heathrow International Airport and McCarran International.

The flagship carrier of the United Kingdom will fly 345-passenger Boeing 747-400 jets on the route Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays beginning March 27. The service will be in addition to daily service from Heathrow and flights five times a week between London's Gatwick International Airport and Las Vegas.

British Airways inaugurated Las Vegas service in October 2009.

The announcement was made Saturday in connection with a British Airways expansion that included additional flights between London and Seattle. Last week, the company also announced it would fly Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets between London and San Jose, Calif.

The new Las Vegas nonstop flights will leave London at 12:30 p.m., and arrive at 3:10 p.m., Las Vegas time. The return trip will leave McCarran at 5:15 p.m., arriving in London at 11:15 a.m., the next day. All current flights are also nonstop.

The new service will bring the number of Boeing 747 jumbo jets to the market to 38 flights a week between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

In the first seven months of 2015, British Airways has carried 163,614 passengers from London to Las Vegas, second highest among carriers serving Europe.

Las Vegas tourism officials have always been excited about British Airways service because the company is capable of carrying so much connecting traffic from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

McCarran recently announced plans to double the number of gates dedicated to international flights from seven to 14 with a project to build a tunnel connecting the D gates to the Customs and Border Protection reception office slated for completion by early 2017.

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find @RickVelotta on Twitter.