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British Airways is to suspend its London Gatwick – Lima route for the winter season from Sunday 29 October 2017. The route is expected to resume from late March 2018.
BA launched its route from London Gatwick to Lima in May 2016. No specific reason has been given for the seasonal cancellation. However, it is assumed the cause of cancellation is unsatisfactory commercial performance. The affected BA flight numbers are BA2239 and BA2238.
If your flight is cancelled you will be reaccommodated on Iberia’s daily service to Lima via Madrid from either London Gatwick or London Heathrow. However, do note that Iberia does not always operate its premium economy cabin between Madrid and Lima. Therefore, if you have booked to fly in World Traveller Plus on BA you may be downgraded to economy on Iberia. Iberia’s daily flight from Madrid to Lima (Flight IB6651 departs Madrid at 12:50pm and arrives in Lima at 17:35. Therefore, connections at Madrid should not be onerous.
Alternatively, you can be accommodated on American Airlines’ services to Lima via either Dallas Fort Worth or Miami.
Further options with partner airlines may become available in the coming weeks.
If you prefer you should be able to move your flight to a date when BA is operating the route. Alternatively, you are entitled to a refund.
Affected passengers should contact either BA or their travel agent.
Update: The route is scheduled to resume on Sunday 25 March 2018, operating three times weekly on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.
It has been a big mistake of BA to fly to Lima from LGW instead of LHR. Lima is a very popular destination for connecting passengers from all over Europe. BA considers Lima as a holiday destination whereas my experience is that Europe-Lima flights are very popular for businesspeople as well. Connecting from other European countries is a problem if BA flies to Limz from LGW. I live in Belgium myself and fly 6-8 times a year to Peru for business. I have been flying years with KLM, then LATAM and now a couple of years Iberia. My general impression has been that Europe-Lima flights are almost always fully booked year round as this is a popular route. I tried one time BA and it wasn’t a good experience. As there are no BRU-LGW flights I had to fly to LHR first and take the bus to LGW. This is not a smooth transfer and obviously most people won’t take this route from Europe to Lima. If BA wants the Lima route to be succesfull, they need to move it to LHR terminal 5.
Sven Van Gucht, Belgium
I’ve been flying to Peru for years. We were happy when British airways started a (direct) route from Gatwick to Lima in May 2015 (winter and summer). Now from 29th October 2017 the British BA direct flights (Gat-Lim) are going to be terminated. In this article I’m responding to it says it’s EXPECTED to resume at some time in March. The word ‘expected’ to me does not sound sure. So could yo please inform me when and or if the direct flights will start up again in March.I wrote this before quoting DIRECT flight and your response was to check out all different connecting flights including Iberia. Because of disability I am not interested in connecting flights and only want information from direct flights from London to Lima.
Yours sincerely Charles Weedon
The direct London Gatwick – Lima service resumes on Sunday 25 March 2018. It operates from London Gatwick three times weekly, on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.
Its correct BA stops flying 27 October 2017 and re-open the route on 25 March 2018 (3 times a week) changing from Year Round to Seasonal, so far.
It is true that there are few cities in Europe to connect from/To when using LGW. Peru is a hot spot that should be served through London Heathrow(LHR), main hub in London, as other europeans carriers do, KLM(AMS), AF(CDG), IB(MAD) LATAM(MAD/BCN) AirEuropa(UX)(MAD) Plus Ultra(MAD) is not true that Lima is not a business city because flights were full in Business class/ClubWorld most of the time. Lima is a OneWorld hub and has connections to all South American countries and capitals including domestic flights, onwards connections that can be served using OneWorld Partners.
Airfrance is expanding flight from 3 times a week to 6 Times a week to Lima, KLM & Iberia Flight daily, all of them full of Passengers with onwards connections. If BA changes LGW for LHR the route will be very profitable for BA
I was flying this route with a connecting flight from KL in Malaysia. I was flying the world traveller plus. Onward flight was absolutely ok. Return flight was little difficult. As a non European, I had to clear the immigration and run. Moreover the flight lands late afternoon, which is a peak time for traffic in London. Moreover I was scared of missing my connecting flight as I had one 2.30 hrs transit time between my connecting flights. Luckily I mad it. I dont want to get through this again. Instead I opted for Singapore Sydney Santiago Lima, which is a safe bet for me. I wish and hope that BA moves this flight to LHR instead of LGW.