Ljubljana, Slovenia (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways is to launch a further two summer seasonal routes from London Heathrow in 2019.
BA will launch a new route to Ljubljana (Ljubljana Jože Pučnik airport) in Slovenia. It will also reinstate a previously suspended route to Montpellier in France, which operated in 2017.
The operating season is relatively short. Both routes will operate from Monday 15 July 2019 to Monday 2 September 2019.
Flights to Ljubljana operate twice weekly on Monday and Friday. Flights to Montpellier operate four times weekly on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Both routes operate from London Heathrow Terminal 5. Note that as these are new routes the operating period may be subject to change depending on commercial demand.
In terms of other summer seasonal short-haul route changes, BA has previously announced new routes from London Heathrow to Bastia and Preveza, and the relaunch of Kos from Gatwick.
A number of routes also transfer between Gatwick and Heathrow. Almeria, Bilbao and Mahon transfer to Gatwick. Barcelona, Pisa and Valencia transfer to Heathrow.
British Airways Logo (Image Credit: British Airways)
BA has suspended two of its summer seasonal routes from London Heathrow to Biarritz and Montpellier.
These routes launched last summer. They were scheduled to resume from early May to late September 2018, but have now been cancelled.
Passengers whose flights have been cancelled are entitled to a full refund. The following rebooking options are also available:
Biarritz
Passengers can rebook on to an alternative BA operated flight from London Heathrow to Bilbao or Toulouse or from London Gatwick to Bordeaux. However, any additional consequential costs such as ground transportation will be at your expense.
Alternatively, passengers can be re-accommodated via Madrid on Air Nostrum which flies to Biarritz daily. This obviously involves an element of back-tracking. Passengers must fly to Madrid on a BA operated flight for the connection to Air Nostrum and fly between Saturday 5 May 2018 and Saturday 29 September 2018.
Passengers can also be re-accommodated on Air France services from Paris Charles de Gualle and Paris Orly to Biarritz. However, note that Air France does not operate a business class cabin on this route. Passengers must fly to Paris on a BA operated flight for the connection to Air France and fly between Saturday 5 May 2018 and Sunday 30 September 2018.
Montpellier
Passengers can be re-accommodated via Amsterdam on KLM which flies to Montpellier daily. Passengers must fly to Amsterdam on a BA operated flight for the connection to KLM and fly between Saturday 5 May 2018 and Sunday 30 September 2018.
BA has not announced any re-accommdation arrangements on airlines that fly direct from London to either Biarritz or Montpellier.
Passengers can also be re-accommodated on Air France services from Paris Charles de Gualle and Paris Orly to Montpellier. However, note that Air France does not operate a business class cabin on this route. Passengers must fly to Paris on a BA operated flight for the connection to Air France and fly between Saturday 5 May 2018 and Sunday 30 September 2018.
Note that it is quite common for BA to announce more rebooking options in the weeks after a route is cancelled. Therefore, if the above options are not satisfactory it is worth waiting a week or so to see if any alternatives emerge.
Affected passengers should contact either BA or their travel agent.
British Airways Short Haul Economy Cabin (Credit: British Airways)
Over the past few years British Airways has steadily built up a large portfolio of seasonal summer routes from London Heathrow to sunshine destinations in Europe.
BA has today announced another tranche of seven new seasonal routes for the summer of 2017.
These are:
Montpellier, France (from 3 May 2017 – 30 September 2017) Nantes, France (from 28 March 2017 – 28 October 2017) Murcia, Spain (from 28 March 2017 – 28 October 2017) Tallinn, Estonia (from 28 March 2017 – 28 October 2017) Pula, Croatia (from 1 July 2017 – 30 September 2017) Brindisi, Southern Italy (from 3 June 2017 – 30 September 2017)
The Greek Island of Zakynthos (from 3 June 2017 – 30 September 2017)
All of these routes will operate twice weekly on Saturdays and either Tuesday or Wednesday.
All flights will operate to and from London Heathrow Terminal 5, with the exception of Pula which will operate from Terminal 3.
Additional weekly frequencies may be announced in the coming months, depending on commercial demand.
A large number of seasonal routes operated in previous years, such as Ibiza, Corfu, Mykonos, and Palermo will also return in 2017.
