Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Another way to look at it is that after Angola gets dropped, BA serves 9 countries generally associated with Africa, which amounts to 7 countries in the top 20 by population, plus MRU and SEZ. The largest countries not served are Ethiopia and DRC (probably not a good idea for BA for very different reasons) but with Tanzania (stopped in 2013) and Uganda (stopped in 2015) in 6th and 10th position. The elements that have changed since then are the 787 (in terms of cost effective aircraft), economic growth in Africa is reasonably good and the ME3 are not always that cheap now (cf Durban). I'd guess Zimbabwe will return if current trends continue past the election. Mombasa would be another prospect for LGW maybe, particularly if the risk of terrorism is reduced.
Yes, it's really interesting what the commercial characteristics of the 787 are doing for the route schedule. I too bemoan the rather sad shape of the sub-saharan African route network compared with how I remember it 20-30 years ago. But quite a few of those destinations were on tag-ends, multi-stops flights, and not terrible frequent. So (when they fix their engines) if the 787 operating characteristics, and prices from the ME3, and finding some slot availability (ha) mean that the odd direct service to some of our long-lost friends are viable again, that'd be great...
I was about to sigh at the cancellation of LAD as I still think of it as a relatively recent route, but then realised that it's actually had a good 14 years of operation, which isn't bad in the big scheme of things.