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Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 15 November 2021.
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Eastern Airways Secures Newquay PSO Route
Eastern Airways is reported to have won a contract to operate the Public Service Obligation route from London to Newquay according to Cornwall Reports.
London – Newquay is designated a Public Service Obligation (“PSO”) route. These are subsidised by central and local government to preserve links between London and the regions of the UK.
Other PSO routes include Derry, operated by Loganair from Stansted, and Dundee, operated by Loganair from London City.
Flybe operated the Newquay PSO route from London Heathrow before its collapse in 2020.
Eastern Airways is expected to launch the route from Gatwick in December. It will initially operate daily, and increase up to three times daily in the peak summer season.
As the route operates from Gatwick there will be relatively limited opportunities for codesharing and onward connections. BA’s summer seasonal service to Newquay from Heathrow is due to resume from Sunday 26 June 2022.
Scoot Launches Gatwick – Bangkok – Singapore
Staying with Gatwick, the government is expected to consult shortly on “use it or lose it” slot rules for the summer 2022 season.
Gatwick, along with Belfast & Edinburgh airports and Wizz Air have already made a pre-emptive strike. They have called for slot waivers to end and allow the post COVID-19 reordering of slot ownership to occur.
In its favour, Gatwick can point to new airlines wishing to fly from the airport. Singapore Airlines’ low cost offshoot Scoot will launch a new route from Gatwick to Singapore, via Bangkok, from December. There will be a short period of operation, in advance of a full launch from late March 2022.
At London Heathrow, Singapore Airlines will restart Airbus A380 operations on flights SQ317 / SQ322 between Heathrow and Singapore from this Friday.
BA Route Network Updates
BA’s expansion to the US continues this week.
BA restarts Las Vegas and launches Orlando at London Heathrow today. Newark also increases to twice daily. Flights to Denver and Philadelphia are now operating daily.
Tampa also returns at Gatwick today. Baltimore also returns this Friday. As does Orlando at Gatwick.
BA’s transatlantic joint business partners Finnair and Iberia have confirmed their summer 2022 transatlantic schedules. We should have an official announcement from BA within the next couple of weeks ahead of its Christmas & New Year sales campaign.
Elsewhere, flights to Saint Lucia restart at Heathrow tomorrow and will run until the end of the winter season on Saturday 26 March 2022.
Also of note this week:
Gridpoint Consulting looks at the relative performance of Europe’s three major low cost carriers: easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air. (Gridpoint Consulting)
“Speedbird One: three, two, one – now.” BA pilot Mark Vanhoenacker writes from the jump seat of BA1 from London Heathrow to New York JFK last Monday. It also features insights on what it’s like to operate much heavier cargo only flights which can only reach their maximum weight for landing shortly before. (Financial Times)
“They are trying to work with technology instead of staffing up with people that can answer the damn phone” Why passengers are growing frustrated with increased call waiting times from airline call centres. (New York Times)
“How the UK became the sick man of European tourism.” Brexit, a laissez-faire approach to COVID-19, inconsistent travel rules – why inbound UK tourism is recovering more slowly than in Europe. (CNN)
Also from the same outlet, the viral video from onboard a flight that proved to be fake. (CNN)
Late post publication updates:
[Reserved for updates throughout the day]
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