On wednesday, British Airlines (BA) announced that it is to add a third daily flight from Heathrow to Dubai from October. With the new flightschedule, BA hopes to outplay it’s biggest rival Virgin Atlantic from multimillionaire Richard Branson. According to BA boss Willie Walsh, Virgin will be “struggling” to go forward the coming years due to higher costs and smarter rivals such as BA, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa.

This winter, BA will also be rolling out it’s new Club World on the Dubai route. The product, which features flat bed seats, a pantry for snacking and video on demand, has been installed on BA’s 747s and will be installed on all 777s in the first half of 2009. Paul Starrs, British Airways’ commercial manager, Middle East said: “The arrival of new Club World on the Dubai route, for the winter schedule, further enhances our commercial proposition and demonstrates the Dubai market’s enduring importance to the airline.”