RISING demand from the international business community has prompted British Airways to add a fourth flight to its weekly winter schedule.

That will give Bermuda more direct London flights during the tourism off-season than BA has offered since it began dedicated service here 12 years ago.

The announcement comes just seven weeks before BA is due to launch a fifth weekly flight to London ? on Mondays ? for its summer schedule.

BA district manager Philip Troake said the four-flight winter schedule would kick in at the end of October. And he said the demand for extra capacity had come from the business travel rather than the tourism market. "I don't think we would have been in the position of being able to do this now if it was not for the way international business ? and in particular reinsurance ? has flourished over the last 12 years.

"You can track the growth of our business closely against the way that business has grown.

"Although winter is obviously the off-season for tourism, we have been hearing from the business community that the way their travel works, three flights a week was just not enough," Mr. Troake said.

"They wanted us to keep the Sunday flight as they did not want to keep having to go through New York to get to London."

This winter BA will be offering double the capacity the airline did when it began dedicated service in 1992.

Mr. Troake added that the signs of growing demand for extra capacity had already become apparent.

"Our load factor ? the average number of seats occupied ? was 70 per cent this January, compared to 65 per cent in January last year and 61 per cent the year before.

"As far as tourism is concerned, the winter remains a challenge. However, we are hopeful that the ongoing Tourism Ministry programmes will help justify the increase in capacity."

The four winter flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays on Boeing 777 aircraft with four classes of service.

Bermuda International Airport will be considerably busier this year than last with 122 flights a week expected for the summer, up from 99 last year.

Extra flights announced in recent weeks include new routes from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago and Orlando.