GATWICK

[racedo]

Spent a weekend in Dublin and wondering is the bussing of arriving passengers now the permanent solution or is it a temporary fix ?

[Bagso]

New Gatwick Express fleet heralds start of airport?s rail revolution ? with tube-like frequency and doubling of capacity in just two years | London Gatwick: Obviously

Well we might not be seeing a rail revolution up North but thank goodness the government recognises the merit of a truly fantastic investment for passengers in the Northern Powerhouse anyway as news reaches us of the £6.5 bn (£6500,000,000m) Thameslink upgrade.

Essentially passengers in Liverpool Manchester and Leeds should now be able to get to Gatwick in half the time it takes now with sparkling new fast trains to central London every few minutes.

With no scheduced air service I'm personally euphoric that the train is finally "taking the strain".

Great to see taxpayer funds from up here at last be used in a thoroughly sensible manner providing great connectivity to the South East!

[OldBristolFreighter]

New, expensive, parking policy?

I've just checked 2 weeks "LGW's own" on airport parking only to find it's gone up 50%+ since I checked several weeks ago. Indeed, it is now seriously more expensive than LHR equivalent.
I tried alternative dates, all just the same.
Simple greed I suppose.

[Fairdealfrank]

New Gatwick Express fleet heralds start of airport?s rail revolution ? with tube-like frequency and doubling of capacity in just two years | London Gatwick: Obviously

Well we might not be seeing a rail revolution up North but thank goodness the government recognises the merit of a truly fantastic investment for passengers in the Northern Powerhouse anyway as news reaches us of the £6.5 bn (£6500,000,000m) Thameslink upgrade.

Essentially passengers in Liverpool Manchester and Leeds should now be able to get to Gatwick in half the time it takes now with sparkling new fast trains to central London every few minutes.

Be interesting to see how a high-frequency, train every 3 minutes, service can be obtained on that line. It is notorious for delays at present and, like LHR rwys, operates at or above capacity most of the time.

[TurboTomato]

I've just checked 2 weeks "LGW's own" on airport parking only to find it's gone up 50%+ since I checked several weeks ago. Indeed, it is now seriously more expensive than LHR equivalent.
I tried alternative dates, all just the same.
Simple greed I suppose.

Then use one of the off site operators that offer meet & greet. Probably still cheaper than parking on site.

[vctenderness]

I guess it's because we are fast approaching the first big holiday of the year, Easter.

Flights, car parks, hotels etc will increase. Try the Summer Special site which will be much cheaper and is very close to North Terminal.

[AvGeek1]

Virgin Atlantic flight 6 from Miami to Heathrow is diverting to Gatwick. It is operated by the 787-9.

[canberra97]

Arrived at LGW on Tuesday afternoon and noticed two similar structures in place at stands 154 and 155 in the cargo area, they look like temporary hangar like buildings but not hangers, does anyone know what they are intended for.

Also does anyone have a date for when the new Pier 1 opens as it looks to be at least 95% complete.

[yotty]

Lufthansa Technics.

http://www.crawley.gov.uk/pub_livx/g.../pub274255.pdf Now Virgin are no longer doing EasyJets A319/20/21s.

[Blink182]

Arrived at LGW on Tuesday afternoon and noticed two similar structures in place at stands 154 and 155 in the cargo area, they look like temporary hangar like buildings but not hangers, does anyone know what they are intended for.~

New 2 Bay Hangar for Lufthansa Technics........about to be taking over the Easyjet servicing contract.

Yotty beat me to it !

[cornishsimon]

BA just announced LGW-CPT 3 weekly from November.


cs

[Aksai Oiler]

CS what about Mogadishu?

[jdcg]

Think the BA LGW - CPT service is to kill off the Thomas Cook flight that's launching around the same time

[canberra97]

British Airways commences seasonal flights three times weekly from London Gatwick to Cape Town, South Africa on 24 November 2016.

BA0264 LGW 18.00 CPT 07.50 146 B772

BA0265 CPT 19.10 LGW 05.05 257 B772

British Airways have also confirmed that a forth 3 class 777 will be joining the LGW fleet for winter 2016 bringing it to a total of 12 Boeing 777 200ER's based at the airport.

I wonder what other long haul routes ex LGW will be announced, maybe a return to the Seychelles.

[True Blue]

With this recent announcement from BA and news that Aeroflot are looking for 2 daily slots to Moscow, is this the first stirrings of airlines trying to get slots at Lgw before they too disappear? Bearing in mind it could be 15 years before there is a third runway at lhr, if it is approved.

[CabinCrewe]

Wheres all the nay-sayers now saying BA long haul has had it? now NYC, and then CPT....

[wallp]

BA Long Haul

after Lima, Costa Rica, New York and now Cape Town, it makes me wonder where next for BA long haul at Gatwick?

Opportunities perhaps to places like Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Bangkok, Havana or Santiago?

[Flightrider]

Interesting to see Tianjin Airlines planning 2x weekly LGW-Chongqing-Tianjin with their new A330 this summer. That's definitely one that was impossible to predict!!

[nguba]

after Lima, Costa Rica, New York and now Cape Town, it makes me wonder where next for BA long haul at Gatwick?

Opportunities perhaps to places like Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Bangkok, Havana or Santiago?

I definitely think we're likely to see more westbound routes. Eastbound routes are more difficult, unless there is strong premium demand (like Male) that will pay for a direct link over a stop in Dubai etc.

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

Wheres all the nay-sayers now saying BA long haul has had it? now NYC, and then CPT....

Who said BA long haul "had it"? Straw man arguments don't help.

Some stats :
2005S ANU ATL BDA BGI DFW GND IAH KIN MCO TAB TPA UVF 12 destinations at 59 departures per week

2015S BDA BGI CUN GND KIN LAS MCO MRU PLS POS PUJ SKB TAB TPA UVF 15 destinations at 62 flights per week

Now between those two extremes for which I have data to hand, traffic fell to 46 departures per week in 2008S after Bermuda 2 was replaced allowing the old BCAL IAH/ATL/DFW routes to finally move to LHR. Growth since then has gotten them back to higher than the 2005 figure which was well down on hub days when we had B744s galore alongside B763s and based B777s.
Growth has come from leisure point to point where BA Holidays can sell good deals and where business customers can bust some accumulated AVIOS.

I was told again and again that JFK would not return as it was the lowest yielding LON-NYC rotation. However I suspect that the BA strategy has been tweaked to prevent Norwegian doing to BA long haul what easyJet did on short haul at Gatwick. Hence taking the fight to the competition with JFK coming back. Given the B777s are staying until end of life, there's scope for yet more hand me downs from LHR when enough B789s arrive. CPT was a very pleasant surprise although I was disappointed LAS was cut back, seemed like a very good LGW fit.

I only hope that they get use of the Satellite rather than the windowless gaterooms of Pier 2 when they get evicted, er willingly move out of the North Terminal to make way for easyJet.