New Philadelphia service for Heathrow next year

Heathrow Airport will be boosted by further access to North America next year, with US Airways set to launch a direct service between the London hub and Philadelphia.

The carrier announced that it will commence the service on March 29th and offer 29 envoy and 259 economy seats per flight.

Made possible by the Open Skies agreement reached by the EU and the US earlier this year, the new Philadelphia-Heathrow route will be US Airways' seventh new transatlantic service since 2006.

The connection will bring the carrier's total number of European destinations served from its Philadelphia hub to 20.

US Airways president Scott Kirby said: "We are extremely excited to enter the lucrative Heathrow market and bring this valuable service to the Philadelphia community.

"We were fortunate to identify a unique opportunity to acquire landing and takeoff rights at Heathrow and given Heathrow's importance as a European gateway as well as its close proximity to London for business travellers, we are pleased to take advantage of that opportunity."

US Airways operates 390 daily flights to 108 destinations across Europe, North America, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America.