Originally Posted by
ISTFlyer
Like others have mentioned, BA is in a monopoly on the Durban route so it's normal that prices are expensive compared to JNB & CPT where there is competition.
Is this what you were finding in practice? It's not what we usually saw.
And there has normally been plenty of competition on LON-DUR. BA is far from being a monopoly on this route. The only thing that BA has is one non-stop flight three times a week, operated at poor and inconvenient times. Against that, there is plenty of convenient and not-so-convenient one-stop competition. On four days of the week, it is a minimum of one stop between LON and DUR anyway, so one stop is not even a disadvantage. The one-stop competition includes LON-DXB-DUR on EK and LON-DOH-DUR on QR, and the latter means that you don't even have to go out of alliance if you're normally a BA customer.
At any rate, the supposed competitive advantage of a non-stop flight does not seem to be a plausible explanation for the non-stop flights only having J, C, W, Y and B class availability eleven months away from the flight. In present circumstances, both directly and indirectly related to the pandemic, it is not hard to understand why BA will only take reservations for the non-stop flights if you are prepared to pay an expensive fare, given the significant risk that BA may have to shell out for refunds or reaccommodation if, by October, it proves not to be possible or viable to operate these non-stops.