Next year, Big Ben and bangers will be that much closer for local fliers. The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority announced Oct. 6 that British Airways will begin nonstop roundtrip service from Lindbergh Field to London’s Heathrow Airport in June. “It’s going to be that much easier to get to San Diego from not just London, but from the rest of the world because we will feed this traffic in quite successfully in Heathrow and a have a very easy connection into San Diego,” said Kevin Burns, British Airways regional director for Western USA and Western Canada. Once the planes take to the air June 1, the San Diego-to-London route will be Lindbergh’s only nonstop flight to Europe. Current international nonstop destinations include Cabo San Lucas, Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver. “We are thrilled about the announcement and are eager to facilitate nonstop services between the two cities,” said Katie Jones, a public and community relations spokes-woman for the Airport Authority. Lindbergh Field first launched service to London out of San Diego in 1988, a direct flight through Los Angeles and then Phoenix. Nonstop service to London began five days a week in 2001 and lasted until 2003. As for the local economic impact of the flights, Jones said the $2.3 billion visitors spend annually in San Diego will only increase with the new route. According to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, international visitors stay in San Diego longer and spend an average of $300 more per trip than those visiting from inside the U.S. “The value of a single international flight is several times greater than the value of a new domestic flight,” Jones said. According to an Airport Authority analysis, nearly 400,000 people travel between Europe and San Diego each year, currently having to make connections elsewhere before arriving in San Diego. Jones said until the announcement, San Diego was the largest U.S. passenger market without a nonstop flight to Europe. “There is a significant untapped market of people — both from the business and leisure sectors — ready, able and eager to take advantage of nonstop service between San Diego and London,” Jones said. British Airways was able to restore local nonstop flights to London out of San Diego because of a joint business agreement with American Airlines and Iberia that the European Union and the U.S. Department of Transportation approved in July. The agreement shares revenue, coordinates each network and schedules, and allows commercial cooperation on routes in the North Atlantic. “That has been the catalyst for several decisions around the globe in terms of where we want to fly,” Burns said. “It is a live entity, so we need to make these adjustments commercially and add to our portfolio of routes around the globe.” In addition to the San Diego-London route, British Airways unveiled four other routes on Oct. 6: New York to Budapest, Chicago to Helsinki, Los Angeles to Madrid and Miami to Barcelona. Burns said the success of a Las Vegas-London route that British Airways started last year makes a San Diego flight to the United Kingdom a calculated risk. “It’s really a commercial decision on the part of British Airways to make the commitment,” Burns said. “We take that on, and the cost of operating into any of these markets, particularly from London all the way out to the West Coast, is significant. It is a very large number before we even break even.” Once in schedule, British Airways Flight 272 will depart Lindbergh Field at 8:05 p.m. on June 1 and arrive at Heathrow at 2:25 p.m. the next day, while British Airways Flight 273 will depart London at 3:05 p.m. and arrive in San Diego at 6:15 p.m. local time. Online, prices start at around $1,400 for a round-trip flight.