Originally Posted by
FlyGatwick
Having had a look at Aurigny's new Gatwick-Guernsey summer timetable the other day, I noticed that they appear to have increased their daily rotations from five / six per day to eight per day. Is this perhaps where some of the Aer Lingus Gatwick slots could have gone?
On a different note, who could be next?
Are we likely to see Cathay's return to Gatwick, if not this coming winter season, the following summer season (as they don't seem to have sufficient staff at the moment to resume all of their pre-pandemic routes and services)? I very much hope so.
Another possibility of a Gatwick service resumption after an even longer gap (compared with Cathay) is Etihad resuming Gatwick - Abu Dhabi, perhaps as early as summer 2025, should they decide to add a fifth daily London frequency to their current four daily Heathrow - Abu Dhabi frequencies.
And then there is a possibility of Air Arabia launching Gatwick-Sharjah as the airline's CEO hinted in a recent interview that Air Arabia was looking at launching a London service from its hubs in the UAE (Sharjah and / or Ras Al Khaimah) once it's A321 neo LRs are delivered. Realistically, this is unlikely to happen before 2026. What makes me think that if such a service is launched, Gatwick is the most likely London airport to receive it is the non-availability of Heathrow slots (and as an LCC - of sorts - I can't see Air Arabia paying the sort of money Heathrow slots command) and the fact that Air Arabia Maroc already fly to Gatwick.
As well, there are number of possibilities of existing and new (for Gatwick) South Asian airlines adding starting new services from Gatwick later this year and next:
Air India is still expected to reinstate its previously planned Gatwick-Bengaluru service, especially since the airline has meanwhile confirmed that Bengaluru will be its second global hub after Delhi and its first South Indian hub. In addition, there have been reports that the airline is planning to add more frequencies from London to its main Delhi hub - additional to the daily Heathrow-Delhi frequency Air India will inherit from Vistara once the merger between these two Tata-owned full service airlines has been consummated - to be added at Gatwick due to non-availability of the required Heathrow slots. In addition, the Indian media has also reported that weekly Gatwick-Kochi frequencies are set to increase from three to four later this year, and the Air India manager for northeastern India has been quoted as saying that the airline is mulling launching a direct London-Kolkata service. Again, due to non-avalability of Heathrow slots, this route is likely to operate from Gatwick (should it become reality, subject to Air India being allocated sufficient, suitably timed Gatwick slots). Moreover, once again subject to there being relevant slot availability at Gatwick, I believe it is highly likely Air India will want to launch direct services from London to the new airport at Navi Mumbai (New Bombay), the greater Mumbai area's second international airport due to become operational at the end of this year or early next, that the airline will want to reinstate direct London-Hyderabad services and probably also look at starting direct London-Chennai flights.
Other than Air India planning to add to its existing Gatwick services, as I already said previously, there is a possibility of Indigo, India's biggest (and by some accounts now Asia's biggest and the world's third most valuable publicly listed airline after Delta and Ryanair) airline, launching Gatwick-Delhi, Gatwick - (Navi) Mumbai and Gatwick-Bengaluru should they go ahead with reported plans to add a dedicated long-haul widebody fleet of 30 A350s, with these services most likely to commence in 2026 or 2027.
Beyond India, other South Asian possibilities launching services from Gatwick include US Bangla Airlines, a Bangladeshi hybrid airline, which recently acquired A330s capable of flying direct from Bangladesh to the UK with a viable payload (with the first batch currently serving destinations in West Asia). This airline has been reported as looking at launching direct flights from Dhaka and Sylhet to London. Indeed, this airline actually did already operate a short-lived regular scheduled low-frequency, multi stop Gatwick-Dhaka service using MD80 narrowbodies ca. 10-12 years ago. Then, there is a possibility of Pakistan International Airlines resuming flights from London to Karachi and Lahore should they pass the current simultaneous safety audits of the CAA, FAA and EASA as a necessary precondition for resuming flights to the UK, the US and the EU, respectively. Although Pakistan International has retained its Heathrow slots (currently leased to Turkish Airlines), given the dire financial state of the airline, they may decide to continue leasing them to Turkish or to sell them altogether. Given that Sri Lankan Airlines is in a similar financial state, they may decide to lease out their Heathrow slots as well and transfer their London operations to Gatwick instead.
Elsewhere in Asia, my money is still on Starlux launching a Gatwick-Taipei A350 service.
Facing in the opposite geographic direction from the UK, there is also a possibility of Delta adding a summer-seasonal Gatwick-Boston service (as originally planned pre-pandemic) to its current summer-seasonal Gatwick-JFK service, United launching a summer-seasonal Gatwick-Newark service and perhaps even American launching a summer-seasonal Gatwick-Philadelphia service.