British Airways to fly to San Jose in California's Silicon Valley

Flights will depart Heathrow at 15.15 and arrive in San Jose at 18.05. In the opposite direction, flights will depart San Jose at 20.00 and arrive in London at 14.05 the next day. BA will use one of its new stretched Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on the San Jose route, and with an extra 20ft compared to its 787-8 predecessor, there is room for eight first class seats onboard. The 787-9 will have eight seats in First, 42 seats in Club World (business class), 39 in World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and 127 in World Traveller (economy).

British Airways First Class San Jose becomes the airline’s fourth Californian destination, after Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. BA currently operate daily A380s to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

, BA's head of global sales, said: "Our new daily service will offer fantastic direct flights between Silicon Valley and London, with onward connections to scores of destinations around the globe on our extensive world-wide network. 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." Earlier this month BA announced new routes from Gatwick to

Lima, Peru

, and

San Jose, Costa Rica

. BA's first 787-9 service takes off from Heathrow to Delhi in October.