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Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 29 November 2021.
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One Step Forward…
This week was due to be a cause for celebration.
On Friday, BA is due to restart Airbus A380 long haul operations with daily flights to Dubai (BA107 & BA106). Miami (BA209 & BA208) follows on Sunday.
This was meant to further signal a return to normal and the release of pent up passenger demand. Events have now decided otherwise.
From 04:00 tomorrow morning all passengers arriving in the UK will have to take a PCR test by day 2 and self-isolate until they receive a negative test result. Full guidance is available on gov.uk
Whilst this is a temporary measure and scientific advisors would say it’s better to move hard and fast early than wait until you are certain you are right, the uncertainty, the one thing that irritates passengers more than anything else, is hugely damaging to the travel industry.
easyJet and IAG shares fell sharply on Friday and are likely to fall further when markets open this morning.
BA Route Network Updates
Last week, BA CityFlyer pushed back the launch of its new winter seasonal route from London City to Salzburg by one week to 17 December.
At Heathrow, Salzburg along with Grenoble and Innsbruck are due to resume next weekend but in all likelihood could also be pushed back.
This week BA does restart Zagreb on Thursday, and Bilbao and Pisa on Friday after a brief period of suspension.
Also at Heathrow, Nashville and New Orleans restart next Thursday 9 December. Punta Cana and San Jose (Costa Rica) restart at Gatwick on the same day. As does the much delayed new route from Gatwick to Doha.
Also of note this week:
The CAA publishes domestic and international route data for October 2021. November data will be awaited to see how the lifting of US travel restrictions has impacted passenger numbers.
US Thanksgiving travel during a pandemic. (Reuters Pictures)
How SWISS despatches an Airbus A320 aircraft from Zurich to New Mexico for retirement. (Swiss)
An interview with Tim Jordan, CEO of Australia’s newest low cost airline “Bonza”. (Sydney Morning Herald)
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.
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