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British Airways has today announced it is to cancel its thrice weekly London Gatwick – Colombo service, which operated as an additional leg to its service to Male in the Maldives.
The last flight from London Gatwick will operate on 27 March 2015 and the last inbound flight will operate on 28 March 2015.
The Male service will also be suspended from the above dates until 25 October 2015, operating as a seasonal service only.
The affected flight numbers are:
BA2043 London Gatwick – Male – Colombo
BA2042 Colombo – Male – London Gatwick
At present, BA is offering refunds to affected passengers. BA has not yet confirmed whether passengers can be accommodated on partner airlines.
We would recommend affected passengers hold out for further information as there are likely candidates such as fellow Oneworld alliance partners Qatar Airways and SriLankan Airlines who can accommodate passengers and it does take time for airlines to formalise commercial arrangements.
Update 30 September 2014: BA has now published a commercial policy for affected passengers. Passengers booked to fly to Colombo have the option of being re-routed on BA’s London Heathrow – Mumbai flight with an onward connection to Colombo on Jet Airways.
Update 14 October 2014 BA is now offering an additional re-rerouting option for both Male & Colombo passengers with Sri Lankan Airways.
This does mark something of a setback in what has been an otherwise largely successful programme of long-haul expansion at London Gatwick over the past five years.
We surmise that the length of the flights (13 hours in total) and competitive pressure on fares may have had an impact on this decision.
No announcement has been made as to where else the aircraft released by this announcement may be used on the London Gatwick network.
BA must offer a re-route under EU261-2004 Articles 5 and Article 8, if the passengers so wish, failure to do so, means they are breaking the law. The fact that their systems cannot currently handle a re-route is irrelevant under the law. They should not have withdrawn the service without have appropriate agreements in place.
We can’t be the only customers affected by this!
I have found no other comments.
My honeymoon has fallen apart now because of this and BA are doing nothing to help other than offer us a refund! How does that help me get to The Maldives and why should we have to cover now all the extra costs?
This is so unfair as I booked our honeymoon back in June and now everything is more expensive.
Natasha, BA has published a commercial policy for affected customers. Unfortunately, there isn’t a re-route option for customers affected by the Male cancellation. However, BA say there are still in discussions with other carriers, so something may forthcoming in the next few days: http://www.speedbirdclub.com/nl/all-news/commercial-policies/condicarr/mlecmbsusp
Thank you. But I’m not sure how long we can wait though.
Hi, we have also been affected by this and having 8 seats booked will also be seriously out of pocket! We have booked to fly out on the 25th prior to the cancellation and return on the 9th and all BA are currently offering is to cancel both legs of the journey. Can they do this and is there no compensation arrangements?
Paul sadly they can. They are covered. We have given up and will now book with Virgin Holidays.