British Airways Lounge, South Terminal, London Gatwick (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways is to launch a new winter seasonal route from London Gatwick to Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Flights will operate twice weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 13 October 2020 until Easter 2021.
The route will be operated with a three class Boeing 777-200 aircraft.
It may seem unusual for the airline to launch a new route at a time of significantly reduced demand. However, it’s worth recalling that after the 2008 financial crisis, BA pivoted towards long-haul leisure routes and added a number of destinations at Gatwick such as Male and Cancun. There may also be an element of subsidy for this route.
Virgin Atlantic previously flew to Montego Bay from Gatwick and is due to restart the route from London Heathrow on Friday 2 October 2020. This move by BA will obviously put competitive pressure on Virgin Atlantic.
British Airways short-haul flights at London Gatwick airport will remain suspended until early November 2020 at the earliest.
All BA flights at Gatwick have been suspended since April 2020. BA has transferred many short-haul routes from Gatwick. These include:
Alicante Algiers (TBC) Bari (from 1 August) Bilbao Bordeaux (from 1 August) Cagliari Catania (from 1 August) Dubrovnik Funchal Genoa (from 1 August) Jersey Kos Lanzarote (from 1 August) Mahon, Menorca Malta (from 3 August) Naples Paphos (from 1 August) Porto Salzburg (from 1 August) Seville Tenerife Thessaloniki Turin Verona
Flights on overlapping routes such as Faro, Ibiza, Palma, Rhodes and Tenerife have also been transferred to Heathrow.
Some short-haul routes have not transferred to Heathrow. Flights to Gran Canaria and Milan Bergamo have been suspended until late October 2020. Flights from Gatwick to Antalya will not resume until summer 2021. Almeria has been permanently suspended.
British Airways has temporarily suspended all flights at London Gatwick airport.
All BA flights at Gatwick are suspended until Saturday 1 August 2020 at the earliest.
BA has temporarily transferred flights to Jersey to London Heathrow during July 2020. Flights will operate daily from Wednesday 1 July 2020.
Flight operations at Gatwick have already reduced significantly. Norwegian has temporarily suspended all flights. Virgin Atlantic has transferred its Gatwick flights to Heathrow. Both of these moves could become permanent.
Given there is huge uncertainty as to the medium to long-term impact of COVID-19 on air travel and the economy, it is plausible that BA may also look to consolidate operations at London Heathrow.
BA 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 to secure a refund or a rebooking.
Sunday 27 October 2019 marks the beginning of the Winter 2019 travel season for airlines. This runs until Saturday 28 March 2020. Here are the main known schedule changes for British Airways at London Gatwick.
These are for indicative guidance and are subject to change according to commercial and operational requirements. Flights from Gatwick can booked at ba.com
Long-Haul Changes
Cape Town resumes for the winter, three times weekly, from Monday 11 November 2019 to Saturday 28 March 2020.
Cancun increases to five times weekly.
Fort Lauderdale has been suspended since Saturday 7 September 2019.
Lima is suspended for the winter from Friday 25 October 2019 until Sunday 29 March 2020.
Male resumes for the winter from Sunday 27 October 2019 to Friday 27 March 2020.
New York JFK will be operated by an Envelop Airlines Airbus A330 aircraft from Sunday 27 October 2019 to Sunday 12 January 2020. This is a two class aircraft, with no premium economy cabin. All passengers have the option of rebooking on alternative BA services between London Heathrow and New York JFK. The route will also be cancelled from Tuesday 14 January 2020 to Monday 10 February 2020.
Toronto has been suspended for the winter since Tuesday 24 September 2019 and is scheduled to resume from Friday 1 May 2020.
New Short-Haul Routes
BA has transferred its service to Gran Canaria from London Heathrow to Gatwick. It will initially operate three times weekly in the winter season on Monday, Friday and Saturday.
BA launched a new year-round route from Gatwick to Milan Bergamo on Sunday 1 September 2019.
Suspended Short-Haul Routes
The following winter seasonal routes will not return this year:
Friedrichshafen, Lyon
Returning Short-Haul Winter Seasonal Routes
The following routes return for the winter season:
Cologne returns from Friday 1 November 2019 to Friday 27 March 2020.
Geneva returns from Friday 13 December 2019 until Friday 10 April 2020 with increased frequency of 26 flights a week.
Grenoble returns from Saturday 14 December 2019 to Sunday 19 April 2020 with increased frequency of 4 flights a week.
Innsbruck returns from Sunday 8 December 2019 to Friday 24 April 2020 with a decreased frequency of 4 flights a week.
Nuremberg returns from Friday 29 November 2019 to Monday 6 January 2020.
Vienna returns from Sunday 27 October 2019 to Sunday 12 January 2020.
British Airways has launched a new summer seasonal route from London Gatwick to Antalya, Turkey.
The route launches on Thursday 30 April 2020. It initially operates three times weekly, before progressively increasing to six times weekly in the summer peak.
The flight times vary by day, but flights typically leave Gatwick at around lunch time and depart from Antalya in the evening.
In other Gatwick related news, BA’s seasonal routes to Gibraltar and Limoges will not return this summer. These were due to return on 30 April and 22 May 2020 respectively.
BA will continue to serve Gibraltar year-round from Heathrow. Passengers whose flights from Gatwick to Gibraltar have been cancelled can be re-accommodated on BA services from Heathrow.
BA does not serve Limoges from any other London airport. Passengers whose flights have been cancelled are entitled to a full refund. Alternatively, passengers should be able to choose an alternative BA destination in France. However, any consequential costs will be at passengers’ expense.
Passengers can check the status of their booking using the Manage My Booking tool on ba.com
Affected passengers should contact BA or their travel agent.
There has been relatively little news so far this year on BA’s schedules for summer 2020. Further route news is expected for all London airports in the coming weeks.
London Gatwick Airfield (Image Credit: London Gatwick Airport)
British Airways is to transfer its route to Gran Canaria from London Heathrow to Gatwick from late October 2019.
This route has quite a bit of history. BA launched a winter seasonal service from Heathrow in 2013 and moved it to a year-round operation last year. BA did also plan to launch a service from Gatwick in 2015, but this got pulled before launch. Iberia Express did also launch the route from Heathrow in 2015, but this was since suspended.
It currently operates weekly under flight numbers BA489 and BA488 from London Heathrow on Saturdays in the summer and twice weekly on Saturday and Sunday in the winter.
When the route transfers to Gatwick, it will initially operate three times weekly in the winter season on Monday, Friday and Saturday under flight numbers BA2600 and BA2601. Days of operation and frequencies are likely to change in the summer season.
Based on current timetables, the last BA flight operates from Heathrow on Sunday 3 November and the first flights from Gatwick will operate on Friday 25 October.
Existing bookings from Heathrow will be cancelled. Affected passengers have the option of rebooking from Gatwick or flying from Heathrow to Madrid and taking a connecting flight on Iberia.
Passengers can check the status of their booking using the Manage My Booking tool on ba.com
Affected passengers should contact BA or their travel agent.
London Gatwick Airfield (Image Credit: London Gatwick Airport)
British Airways has announced it has suspended its winter seasonal route from London Gatwick to Friedrichshafen.
The route has previously operated on Saturdays from late December to late April. It was due to return this year on Saturday 22 December 2019, but has now been suspended.
There are no alternative BA services from London to Friedrichshafen. Passengers whose flights have been cancelled are entitled to a full refund. BA may offer affected passengers a flight to an alternative BA destination nearby. However, any consequential costs such as ground transportation will be at passengers’ expense.
Passengers can check the status of their booking using the Manage My Booking tool on ba.com
Affected passengers should contact BA or their travel agent.
Manhattan at Sunrise (Image Credit: London Air Travel)
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British Airways has cancelled its daily service from London Gatwick to New York JFK from Tuesday 14 January to Monday 10 February 2020.
The affected flight numbers are BA2273 from London Gatwick to New York JFK and BA2272 from New York JFK to London Gatwick.
No specific reason has been given for the cancellations other than “commercial reasons” which suggests low seasonal demand.
Passengers whose flights have been cancelled are entitled to a full refund. Passengers can also be re-accommodated on alternative American Airlines and BA services from London Heathrow. However, any additional costs such as ground transportation and hotels will be at passengers’ expense.
Passengers can check the status of their booking using the Manage My Booking tool on ba.com
Affected passengers should contact BA or their travel agent.
More to read on British Airways Disruption
Here are our latest posts on disruption affecting British Airways:
BA World Traveller cabin on LGW based Boeing 777 aircraft (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways is now approximately two thirds of the way through the refurbishment of its fleet of Boeing 777-200 aircraft at London Gatwick.
The primary reason for the refurbishment is to increase the number of seats in the World Traveller economy cabin from 9 to 10 a row.
As at November 2019, ten three class Gatwick Boeing 777-200 aircraft (registrations G-VIIO, G-VIIP, G-VIIR, G-VIIT, G-VIIU, G-VIIX, G-YMMB, G-YMMC, G-YMMD and G-YMMF) have been refurbished as have three four class aircraft (G-VIIV, G-VIIW, G-VIIY). BA is expected to complete the Gatwick refurbishment this year.
On three class aircraft, BA has installed a new seat in a now larger World Traveller Plus premium economy cabin. It has decreased the number of Club World business class seats. The in-flight entertainment system has also been upgraded and it is a radical improvement on the previous system.
The remaining refurbished aircraft are four class Boeing 777-200 aircraft. The overall change in seating configuration is much more modest.
This year, BA will also begin refurbishing its Heathrow based Boeing 777s. Two four class aircraft will receive a full refurbishment. This will include a smaller First Class cabin with 8, rather than 14, seats and an entirely new Club World cabin.
Fort Lauderdale Beach (Image Credit: London Air Travel)
British Airways is to suspend its route from London Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale.
The last flights between Gatwick and Fort Lauderdale are scheduled to operate on Saturday 7 September 2019.
The route currently operates three times weekly. It launched in 2017 and, like BA’s now suspended route to Oakland, followed the launch of this route by Norwegian at Gatwick.
Norwegian has in the past month switched its Gatwick – Fort Lauderdale route to Miami International. This means London will have no direct link to Fort Lauderdale. This is a shame as Fort Lauderdale is a worthwhile destination in its own right and an alternative to what is a very unpredictable arrivals experience at Miami International.
Passengers whose flights have been cancelled are entitled to a full refund. Alternatively, passengers can be re-accommodated on American Airlines and BA services from Heathrow to Miami International. However, any additional costs such as ground transportation will be at your own expense.
Affected passengers should check the status of their booking at ba.com and contact either BA or their travel agent.
Update: BA has published guidance which adds that affected passengers can also choose to fly from Gatwick to Orlando or Tampa in Florida. Again, any consequential costs will be at passengers’ expense.
