GATWICK

[ATNotts]

Originally Posted by davidjohnson6

A one way off peak ticket from Gatwick to London Bridge or St Pancras bought a few minutes before departure costs 10 pounds.
A one way off peak ticket from Birmingham airport to Euston a few minutes before departure costs 24 pounds for a train taking 2 hours or 50 pounds for a fast train.

Yes you can buy a ticket in advance for less but if your plane lands late, your ticket is invalid. Planning on allowing 2 or 3 hours between landing and an onward train departing is not popular.

The Stansted Express sells tickets for 8 pounds one way if booked in advance - you need specify only the day of travel, not the exact time of train. Deutsche Bahn in Germany have a scheme allowing one to purchase a fairly flexible train ticket to the airport provided it's bought from an airline in conjunction with a flight ticket.

If there were a similiar scheme to the Stansted Express or the German Rail Air scheme, I imagine BHX would become much more viable for people travelling for leisure and based in London.

I take your point, but surely it would not be beyond the wit of Virgin West Coast and an airline to make some sort of commercial agreement along the lines of the DB - in the days of Swissair I recall the SBB had a similar agreement, and I would expect that most European countries have a more flexible, and easier to use ticketing and transfer system than we endure here.

All this, of course requires an "integrated transport system", which by and large is an alien concept to transport planners in the UK!

By far the biggest hurdle to jump however is getting people (both airlines and their customers) to appreciate that there is life outside of London, but without turning this thread into some sort of "Manchester-esque" path I won't make any further comment in that regard!

[True Blue]

Never mind Manchester, there is little aviation life outside Heathrow for many!

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by ATNotts

I would have thought that a good option for LHR's waiting room could well be BHX - but of course, it isn't called London.

Don't worry, it will be soon - London's tentacles are reaching out up the M40, they've got halfway so far:

[TOM100]

First Great Western have such a rail deal with SQ (and I think
BA) thru PAD

[adfly]

Norwegian Long Haul S16

Looking at what is currently on sale up to 6th June, there appears to be the following;

New York JFK - Daily (up from 6 weekly this year)
Los Angeles - 4 weekly (Mon/Thurs/Fri/Sun)
Orlando - 2 weekly (Tues/Sat, up from 1 weekly this year)
Ft. Lauderdale - 1 weekly (Weds)

Boston is not on sale yet but announced to be 4 weekly, so if an extra aircraft is added then there is potentially up to another 3 weekly slots to be used depending on where and when the aircraft get days to rest. My bets would be on a 2/3 weekly flight to Baltimore or Oakland. Will be interesting to see which routes get the larger 787-9's too.

[canberra97]

Adfly

Regarding Norwegian long haul ex LGW for summer 2016.

Have you not missed SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico?

Sean

Btw If anyone hasn't been to Puerto Rico before I thoroughly recommend it as it's a beautiful island with lots to do and see

[adfly]

San Juan

This route appears to be winter seasonal as it stands currently.

[davidjohnson6]

Royal Air Maroc's website lists a non-stop scheduled route from Gatwick to Rabat, presumably in competition with Ryanair's Stansted-Rabat route. Seems to be 3x per week starting Monday 26 October.
Anyone know anything about this ?

[Charley B]

EK 11/12 the early morning arrival ,will be an A380 from 15/8/15 for 2 weeks..it will then revert back to a 777, until 1/1/16 when it becomes a permanent A380 flight.

[goldeneye]

Caribbean Airlines to end Gatwick service

Caribbean Airlines are to end services to London Gatwick early 2016.

Source

[Need to Know Basis]

Caribbean

Caribbean Airlines CEO wants to. The Trinidad Government disagrees. Some way to go on this announcment.

[Cazza_fly]

British Airways to Porto

British Airways has announced a new year round service from Gatwick to Porto starting February 2016. It will initially operate 4x weeky rising to 6x weekly from the summer schedule.

[adfly]

It is good to see the days of BA cutting its LGW base seem to be comfortably in the past now. I wonder if they will look into acquiring any more A320's next year in addition to the extra 777?

For 2015/16 the following have been added so far:

Bodrum
Cagliari
Dalaman
Heraklion
Porto
Providenciales (Transferred from LHR)
Rhodes
San Jose (Costa Rica)
Sharm el Sheik
Valencia
Vienna

[cornishsimon]

I predict another 5-10 A320/1 mix second hand order plus 772s are not unheard of ln the second hand market ........

cs

[adfly]

Can't see BA picking up any second hand 777's in all honesty. I expect the odd one will make the hop across the M25 as the 789's get delivered to LHR though!

[True Blue]

"Passenger numbers were highest in London with 40,600 and 73,500 people flying out of Gatwick and Heathrow respectively."

The above is taken from an Emirates press release. As Lhr has 5x A380 and Lgw has 2x A380 plus 1 B777 daily, is Lgw running with a higher load factor than Lhr, at least for the month of July?

TB

[vectisman]

BA also added Fuerteventura, Funchal and Seville this year.


V.

[Fairdealfrank]

Further afield, Norwegian aside, the airport continues to struggle to gain and hold onto long haul carriers. Presumably, given the chance, Garuda would switch to Heathrow like Vietnam and others before them.

Almost certainly, and there may be sufficient premium business for GA to do LHR-CKG non-stop.

Does Gatwick have to content itself that it will never offer a wide range of long haul destinations, beyond the holiday flights which BA and Virgin focus on or the lower cost ops of Norwegian?

Yes, whether LHR gets a third rwy, LGW gets a second rwy, or, as is most likely, no one gets anything.

Actually if LHR gets a third runway against BA's wishes, might BA shift as much of the LGW operation round as possible to keep up market share and freeze out EZY?

Probably, would expect VS to do so as well. BA could use VY to take on U2.

Given the frequency, speed and reliability of the rail service between Birmingham International and Euston, I would have thought that a good option for LHR's waiting room could well be BHX - but of course, it isn't called London.

Not yet.

It is good to see the days of BA cutting its LGW base seem to be comfortably in the past now. I wonder if they will look into acquiring any more A320's next year in addition to the extra 777?

For 2015/16 the following have been added so far:

Bodrum
Cagliari
Dalaman
Heraklion
Porto
Providenciales (Transferred from LHR)
Rhodes
San Jose (Costa Rica)
Sharm el Sheik
Valencia
Vienna

PLS was ex-LHR via NAS once/week, now it's ex-LGW via ANU once/week and goes twice/week in the winter 15/16 season.

[compton3bravo]

All those new BA short haul routes are in direct competition with the Orange mob, no wonder Mr W does not want them at Heathrow, bad enough at Gatwick.

[vectisman]

However British Airways must be feeling quite confident about operating their leisure routes from Gatwick in competition with Easyjet. I say this because at the moment it is BA introducing the routes in competition with Easyjet and not the other way around, as has been the case in the past.
As for Easyjet at Heathrow or the 4th runway, they are both about 10 years away (if ever). Plenty of time still make money at Gatwick. And if Gatwick should get the 2nd runway rather than LHR its 3rd things could become very interesting.


v.