MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

British Airways cuts weekly London/Buenos Aires direct flights to five a week

However the company will continue with its Boeing 777-200 meaning that there will be no reduction in the number of seats per flight.

British Airways will be eliminating two direct flights between Buenos Aires and London beginning 31 March 2015, meaning the weekly schedule will be cut from seven to five flights, mainly because of a drop in the number of passengers.

“The decision to reduce the service frequency to Buenos Aires as of next UK summer is based strictly on commercial demand”, said a brief release from the British airlines.

Under the new flights' schedule connecting Ezeiza with Heathrow, Wednesday and Friday are eliminated, and likewise Tuesday and Thursday flights from London. Buenos Aires departure time is 22:45 and from London, 13:00.

However the company will continue with its Boeing 777-200 meaning that there will be no reduction in the number of seats per flight.

Although British Airways did not give further details, in the first half of the year according to official Argentine stats the number of departing tourists from Argentina was down. This is mainly because since last December, overseas tickets have to pay an additional 35%, and in January the government devalued the Argentine Peso 20%. Both factors contributed to a 40% floor contraction in the sale of air tickets.

British Airways is not the first company making such a decision. Last March, South African Airways cancelled its direct flight to Johannesburg because of economic problems and a considerable drop in the number of passengers.

United Airways in September a year ago cancelled its direct flight to New York from Ezeiza because of 'insufficient' demand for such a flight.

Further back, March 2012, Australia' Quantas suspended flights to and from Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia to concentrate in Chile, following an agreement with Lan Chile.

Finally last week American Airlines announced it was limiting its sale of tickets to 90 days for trips from Buenos Aires because of growing difficulties with the foreign currencies market in Argentina.

In effect, the gap between the official and formal dollar market in Buenos Aires with a 75% gap has generated an over demand, with limited sales from overseas, plus the concerns about the volatility of the Argentine Peso and potential problems to access to US dollars as has happened with airlines in Venezuela.

Argentines love to travel to the US for shopping and tourism which is overall cheaper than in Buenos Aires and neighboring countries.