LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - British Airways will keep its call centres in Newcastle and Manchester in-house and add millions of pounds of extra investment, the airline said on Wednesday, dashing Capita’s hopes of winning contracts to run the operations.

“I am pleased that following a very detailed review, we are planning to retain both of our long-standing UK call centres in Newcastle and Manchester,” British Airways Chief Executive Alex Cruz said.

Capita had been in a period of “exclusive engagement” with British Airways to support BA’s global customer contact operations, which it said handles around 9.5 million calls a year.