British Airways is to launch a new route to San Jose, the gateway to the technology hub of Silicon Valley.

BA will begin flying from Heathrow to the Californian city from May 4, 2016 when it will operate a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on the route.

San Jose is home to many of the world’s biggest technology brands including Apple, Google, Ebay and Intel.

The new service will run daily and will be BA’s fourth destination in California – it already flies to Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

BA’s head of global sales Stephen Humphreys said: “We’re sure this new service will prove just the business for Californian-based companies looking to expand into Europe and will strengthen London’s strong commercial ties with the west coast.”

The outbound flight leaves Heathrow at 15.15 for arrival in San Jose at 18.05. The return service departs San Jose at 20.00 to arrive at Heathrow at 14.05 the following day.

The 787-9 will feature four cabins with eight seats in First, 42 seats in Club World, 39 in World Traveller Plus and 127 in economy.

The announcement comes after BA unveiled new routes from Gatwick to Peru and Costa Rica both starting in May 2016.

The airline is also to increase capacity on its Heathrow to Las Vegas route with three extra weekly flights from March 27, 2016, taking the total weekly services up to 10.

While a 12th weekly flight will be added on the Heathrow-Seattle route with a new service on Mondays from March 28, 2016.

Source: BuyingBusinessTravel