London Air Travel » Monday Briefing »
Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 24 May 2021.
Quick Links
BA Short Haul Additions
The relaunch of international travel last week was, in spite of a co-ordinated PR effort between BA and Heathrow, a fairly muted affair.
This was not helped by mixed messages from government ministers on the relative status of amber and green list countries. At the weekend Transport Secretary Grant Shapps confirmed that people should not be taking holidays to amber list countries, but is confident that the green list will be extended throughout the summer.
This weekend BA is due to restart short haul flights from London Heathrow to a number of destinations in Greece including Chania, Kalamata, Kefalonia, Preveza, Rhodes and Zakynthos.
BA also launches flights from Manchester and Newcastle to Faro. BA CityFlyer also starts services to Faro from Edinburgh and Southampton. BA will also operate a large number of flights this weekend from Heathrow and Manchester to Porto.
Breeze Airways
A new airline takes to the skies in the US this week. Breeze Airways will launch its inaugural route from Tampa to Charleston this Thursday, 27 May.
Founded by serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman it aims to operate unserved city pairs across the US. Additional markets will be progressively added throughout June and July with the aim of operating 39 routes between 16 cities.
Flights will be operated by Embraer E190 & E195 aircraft. The airline also has 60 Airbus A220 aircraft on order which will be delivered from later this year.
Breeze has styled itself as “seriously nice” airline with fare classes branded “nice” and “nicer”. It will also introduce a dedicated premium cabin “nicest” on Airbus A220 aircraft.
In case you missed it:
JetBlue finally confirms its plans to launch flights to New York JFK at Heathrow from 12 August and Gatwick from 30 September. Time will tell whether it’s really worth the effort splitting such a small operation between two London airports. (London Air Travel)
Heathrow Airport is to open a dedicated arrivals facility at Terminal 3 for passengers arriving direct on flights from “red list” countries from 1 June 2021. This will eventually transfer to Terminal 4. (London Air Travel)
Also of note this week:
Virgin Atlantic’s Chief Customer and Operating Officer Corneel Koster on the airline’s to bring its fleet back into service. This was published before Heathrow confirmed that Terminal 3 would operate as an arrivals terminal for “red list” passengers (Virgin Atlantic)
SWISS Airbus A220 pilot Tina Schwabbe on bringing new aircraft into service on their delivery flights from Montreal to Switzerland. (SWISS)
As BA’s franchise partner Comair reinstates flights between Johannesburg and Victoria Falls, why in 1948 BOAC added a stop at Victoria Falls on its flying boat service from Southampton to Johannesburg.
The FT on why we travel – and why we shouldn’t stop. (Financial Times)
Late post publication updates:
[Reserved for updates throughout the day]
London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing is published every Monday at 06:00 BST. If you have any tips or stories please contact us. You can also follow us on Twitter for breaking news throughout the week.
If you’d like to receive our Monday Briefing and all articles we publish directly in to your mailbox, then please enter your e-mail address below:
© Copyright London Air Travel 2021.
