Vokes55
Very true, short haul will continue to be a pertinent driver for LGW's recovery going forward, and it is encouraging to see EZY building up their LGW station again in conjunction with Wizz Air's new base here. With this in mind, what are BA's plans RE. LGW short haul? Presumably these aren't likely to be reinstated until the W21 schedules, given the majority of BAs traffic still seems to be consolidated at LHR?
Saying that, I do hope that LGW will experience a bounce back in long haul as demand for international travel starts to rebuild itself. LGW had a pretty good and diverse long haul airline and route portfolio prior to Covid, and it is absolutely devastating to see it disappear. The departure of DY long haul has more-or-less wiped out all of LGW-USA services with the exception of MCO which is now only served by BA following the departure of VS. Hopefully LGW will be able to rebuild this going forward as there clearly is demand for LGW-USA services in the long term. Same thing goes for services to the far East. I was recently talking with someone in airline relations at LGW and they are keen to get Cathay Pacific back at Gatwick in the next year or two once things stabilise, on the back of the success of the HKG route in conjunction with their LHR operation. So demand and success of long haul at LGW clearly is there and has worked before (e.g. Emirates and Qatar servicing both LHR and LGW simultaneously) and hopefully long haul airlines will come back to LGW once there is sufficient demand to justify.