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Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 28 March 2022.
Gatwick South Terminal Reopens
The South Terminal at London Gatwick reopened yesterday.
The move, which Gatwick has likened to reopening a medium sized airport, takes place in a phased basis.
Airlines such as Air Malta, Aurigny, Eastern, Iberia Express, Norwegian and TAP Portugal moved yesterday. BA and Vueling follow today.
Aer Lingus, Air Baltic, Air Europa and many others follow tomorrow. Full details are available from Gatwick Airport.
BA’s Gatwick lounge facility also reopens today, ahead of the full launch of short haul flights tomorrow.
It was also confirmed last week that BA will lease in some aircraft from Iberia Express to cover some short haul flights.
Staying with BA, here are full summer timetable guides for London City, London Gatwick long haul, London Gatwick short haul, London Heathrow long haul, and London Heathrow short haul.
JetBlue Secures More London Slots
Last week, it emerged that JetBlue is to lease a daily slot pair at Heathrow from Qatar Airways.
This is, ostensibly, to be used for an additional flight to New York JFK.
On Friday, Airport Coordination Ltd published slot allocation reports for London airports for the summer 2022 seasons.
JetBlue has been allocated slots at both Gatwick and Heathrow for flights to Boston. It has slots for 206 and 310 Air Traffic Movements at Gatwick and Heathrow in the summer season. This suggests that Boston could launch later in the summer.
These are not always accurate guides to route plans as airlines do not always take up slots, but it is consistent with JetBlue’s plans for incremental growth in London this year.
Ultra Long Haul Flights
Rising fuel prices are not deterring airlines from launching ultra long haul flights.
After Air New Zealand relaunched plans for non-stop flights between Auckland and New York, Qantas will launch flights between Melbourne and Dallas / Fort Worth. Flights will operate four times weekly from 2 December 2022.
Qantas expects to make a final decision on non-stop flights from London to Sydney and Melbourne, for launch in 2025, by the middle of this year.
Also of interest this week:
Qantas on the history of its “I Still Call Australia Home” advertising campaign, a new version of which was released last week. (Qantas)
A golden rule when travelling through an airport anywhere in the world is to never, ever, joke with security staff or customs & immigration officers. On the other side of the desk, here’s how the Transportation Security Administration has amassed more than 1 million followers on Instagram and uses humour to get its message across. (New York Times)
News from London Air Travel you may have missed:
BA offers refunds for eVouchers issued after flights were cancelled up to (London Air Travel)
On a similar theme, BA will refund all unused Future Travel Vouchers. (London Air Travel)
The Flybe name is to return to London Heathrow from April. (London Air Travel)
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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