Manchester Airport Terminal 3 (Image Credit: Manchester Airport)
British Airways has suspended its route from London Gatwick to Manchester.
The daily connection between Gatwick and Manchester is suspended from Sunday 30 October 2022.
The route which is operated by Heathrow based aircraft & crews as a “W pattern” has a troubled history. It was originally due to start in March 2021. It was delayed by a year. It is now suspended entirely.
BA has today, Friday 25 March, updated its planned schedules.
According to timetables, Iberia Express will operate selected flights from April to a wide range destinations. These include Cagliari, Madrid, Mahon, Malta, Seville, Venice and Verona.
Further changes are possible during the summer season.
British Airways Lounge, South Terminal, London Gatwick (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways will reopen its short haul base at London Gatwick on Tuesday 29 March, shortly after the start of the summer season.
This follows the complete suspension of all short haul flights at Gatwick two years ago. Until recently, BA has operated a single solitary day flight to Glasgow, using Heathrow based aircraft. This will be joined by Manchester on Sunday 27 March.
Not all former Gatwick short haul routes will return. Routes such as Algiers, Funchal, Jersey, Naples, Porto and Tirana will remain only at Heathrow.
Others such as Dubrovnik and Kos will now be served at both Gatwick and Heathrow.
Other former Gatwick routes not immediately served before COVID-19 such as Athens, Madrid and Milan Malpensa return.
Edinburgh will no longer be served at all at Gatwick. Former Gatwick routes such as Bilbao and Genoa are suspended entirely.
Many routes are only on sale until the end of the summer season. The exceptions are Alicante,Bordeaux, Faro, Malaga, Malta, Palma, Seville, Turin. It is inevitable that the route network and schedule will be refined according to commercial & operational performance.
British Airways is to restart short haul flights at London Gatwick Airport from Tuesday 29 March 2022.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic all BA short haul flights at Gatwick were suspended, apart from a daily flight to Glasgow. This operates as a “W pattern” flight as Heathrow – Glasgow – Gatwick – Glasgow – Heathrow.
BA has today, Tuesday 14 December 2021, confirmed its short haul flights network at Gatwick.
There are 35 routes, operated with a fleet of 18 Airbus A320 series aircraft. This is an initially smaller network than before COVID-19 and some Gatwick slots will be leased to easyJet.
The first routes will be Amsterdam, Larnaca, Paphos, Seville, Tenerife and Verona. Routes will be progressively added throughout April and May.
The new schedule includes many former Gatwick routes. As was par the course for BA at Gatwick, flight times vary by day.
There are also routes such as Athens, Berlin Brandenburg, Madrid and Milan Malpensa which were not immediately operated at Gatwick before COVID-19.
Some former Gatwick routes such as Genoa appear to be suspended.
These will all later transfer to a new airline company BA EuroFlyer Ltd. This does not yet have an Air Operators Certificate. It is possible that, like BA CityFlyer at London City, it will have its own flight number sequence, so there may be flight number changes when this takes place.
Some former Gatwick routes are expected to stay at Heathrow only. These include Algiers, Funchal, Jersey, Naples and Porto.
There are no UK domestic routes. These may continue to operate at Gatwick with Heathrow aircraft and crews.
At the time of publication schedule changes are still being made on ba.com. It may be a while before timetables are fully updated & accurate. The winter season schedule is likely to be considerably smaller.
British Airways Pilots (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways pilots have voted in favour of proposals for BA to establish a new airline company at London Gatwick to operate short haul flights.
Almost all BA short haul flights at Gatwick have been suspended since March 2020. BA had been in negotiations with the pilots union BALPA to establish a new airline company to operate short haul flights at the airport. BA’s parent company IAG had cited a need to be “flexible and competitive” at Gatwick.
The new airline company will operate under the BA name with a very similar on board service to short haul flights at present. It will have a lower cost base and a scheduled geared more towards summer seasonal flights with lower pay for pilots during the quieter winter months.
Talks between BA and BALPA broke down which prompted BA to publicly announce that it was suspending almost all short haul flights at the airport. Last week, almost all Gatwick short haul flights were moved to London Heathrow for the summer 2022 season. This left BA with almost no alternative but to lease or sell its Gatwick slots to rival airlines.
A revised proposal was agreed between BA and BALPA last Sunday. In a ballot held by BALPA, BA pilots have voted overwhelmingly in favour (82%) with a turnout of 75%.
It has now emerged that talks between BA and BALPA have restarted. A new improved proposal from BA will be put to BALPA members for a ballot imminently.
British Airways has once again extended the transfer of many short haul routes from London Gatwick to Heathrow until at leastSunday 30 October 2022.
BA originally transferred all Gatwick short haul routes to Heathrow in March 2020. The airline had planned to restart short haul flights at Gatwick from the start of the summer 2022 travel season on Sunday 27 March. Talks with the pilots union BALPA to set up a new subsidiary company to operate these flights under the BA name broke down.
BA has now confirmed that many former Gatwick short haul routes will continue to operate at London Heathrow during the summer 2022 season. They will operate under their former Gatwick flight numbers, which are four digits long and begin with a 2.
British Airways has once again extended the suspension almost all short haul flights at London Gatwick airport.It plans to restart flights in March 2022, operated by a new subsidiary airline.
The vast majority of Gatwick short haul routes have transferred to London Heathrow for the winter 2021 season. This runs from Sunday 31 October 2021 to Saturday 26 March 2022.
The only short haul routes expected to operate at Gatwick over the winter season include Amsterdam, Glasgow and Manchester. The airline will continue to run a limited network of long haul flights at the airport. All BA flights at Gatwick continue to operate from the North Terminal.
This was expected as BA should be able to cancel flights at Gatwick over the winter season without forfeiting its airport slots.
This means the airline will go two years without operating a significant schedule of short haul flights at Gatwick.
Further changes to BA’s short haul route network and schedules from all UK airports are likely over the winter season. This is due to continued uncertainty over both COVID-19 related travel restrictions and the level of demand for business and leisure travel.
British Airways has extended the transfer of all London Gatwick short haul flights to London Heathrow Airport up to Saturday 30 October 2021.
BA transferred all Gatwick short haul routes to London Heathrow in April 2020. This was initially a temporary move. It has been extended many times. The last plan was for short haul flights to resume in July.
The latest extension in no doubt influenced by the UK government’s plans to reopen international travel, which means a near normal summer travel season without restrictions is looking less likely. It does not bode well for BA’s long term presence at Gatwick.
At present, BA is operating a limited number of long haul flights at Gatwick to Antigua, Cancun and St Lucia. A number of flights to Antigua and St Lucia are expected to operate at Heathrow in the summer. BA is also due to transfer flights to Accra, Doha and Islamabad to Gatwick on 31 October 2021.
At the time of publication the latest extension is not reflected in online timetables but these should be updated shortly.
Passengers can check the status of their bookings using the Manage My Booking tool on ba.com and should contact BA or their travel agent.
