GATWICK

[True Blue]

Sunday Times business section had a piece today re the court decision on BAA having to sell more airports. In the article, it stated that Air Asia X are in discussions with Gatwick about a move and they quote "had big plans for Lgw".

True Blue

[Aero Mad]

Some Gatwick news that got forwarded to me, originally intended for spotters but quite interesting.

> An intriguing bundle of facts & rumours mostly thanks to Mr Anon of Furnace Green:

> *Air Asia X & the airport are currently exploring the possibility of moving the current Stansted service to Gatwick.

> *Air Atlanta. As expected, the carrier will operate a four times weekly B743 service to Canadian destinations this summer.

> *Air One has shown interest in operating a twice-daily Milan/Malpensa service.

> *Blue1 is planning to start a daily early morning service to Helsinki from late August or early September.

> *Cimber Sterling is currently planning a lunchtime ATR Billund rotation this summer.

> *Luxair has shown interest in operating a twice-daily Luxembourg service.

> *Norwegian Shuttle will add weekday lunchtime rotations from Copenhagen & Stockholm/Arlanda this summer, giving us up to 16 flights on some days.

> *Qatar A/W. It is thought that the aircraft released from Gatwick operations will be used to add a second daily Manchester service.

> *Ryanair is yet again throwing its toys out of the pram & says it will suspend 18 routes from Girona (including our RYR9228/9) from the first week of May. It appears that the temperamental carrier is having another dispute with the Catalan authorities, doubtless over money.

> *Strategic A/L is to base an A320 at Gatwick this summer to operate flights on behalf of Olympic Holidays.

> *Tunis Air is not currently showing any scheduled services to Gatwick after the end of March (subject to change), though a charter flight to Enfidha will operate from June.

> *Vietnam A/L. The airport is actively talking to this carrier.

[Skipness One Echo]

Qatar A/W. It is thought that the aircraft released from Gatwick operations will be used to add a second daily Manchester service.

Is this a QR pullout then?

[airhumberside]

Air Asia X rumour also mentioned in The Sunday Times yesterday, along with possibly the rest of the AB STN operation moving to Gatwick

Norweigan start a lunchtime ARN on weekdays from May according to the airline route blog

[LGW_08R]

NAX are also adding a 3rd daily flight to Oslo. That makes, ARN, OSL and CPH all with 3 daily flights. They certainly are getting themselves established before easyJet inevitably move into the region.

As for AB, I think its a given that the operation will all move over in time, like NAX did. I suspect they are just attempting to get suitable slots for their flights, are the ones that are left at STN not peak times, with the exception of like a midday Munster?

Air Asia X, interesting. Could be good for the airline, could be catastrophic. Have to see how that one pans out.

Edit: From the list above, the Luxair and Vietnam mentions are of considerable interest. I imagine that Vietnam are also talking to Heathrow so its only understandably that they are talking to Gatwick. But Luxair seems odd. Would this addition be to complement their LCY flights or instead of?

8R

[globetrotter79]

Luxair would presumably be looking to cater for the "gap" in the market resulting from BA moving its London-Luxembourg flights to LHR; so my guess is that any LGW flights would be additional to the LCY operation. All that said, LGW Management tend not to be too excited by the prospect of additional small capacity regional props/jets coming into LGW at peak times so it would be interesting to see if Luxair actually manage to find themselves any slots.

[MUFC_fan]

From the list above, the Luxair and Vietnam mentions are of considerable interest. I imagine that Vietnam are also talking to Heathrow so its only understandably that they are talking to Gatwick

I agree - Skyteam doesn't have the biggest presence at LHR which I'm sure makes it less attractive, although I would guess still the number one choice.

[STN Ramp Rat]

*Vietnam A/L. The airport is actively talking to this carrier*

I understand the local UK management are OK with LGW but the head office only want LHR

*Luxair has shown interest in operating a twice-daily Luxembourg service.

I can't see it, there current route to London is to LCY and it is heavily populated by city workers for the banks, why move

*Air Asia X & the airport are currently exploring the possibility of moving the current Stansted service to Gatwick.

I believe this requires the UK/Malaysia bilateral to be renegotiated but I might be wrong.

As for AB, I think its a given that the operation will all move over in time, like NAX did. I suspect they are just attempting to get suitable slots for their flights, are the ones that are left at STN not peak times, with the exception of like a midday Munster?

I very much doubt it, the passenger flows between FMO and PAD are to a location to the north east of london, and they have a very big corporate client that I believe would be upset with a move of these services to LGW.

[Seljuk22]

BA will end LGW-SSH on 3rd May.

[wowzz]

LGA Capacity

I recall that Gatwick was supposedly the busiest [I assume most movements] single runway airport in the world. Can anyone confirm if that is in fact the case?
Also, at what capacity is LGW currently operating - how many more flights can it physically handle?

[kdhurst380]

LGW is indeed the worlds busiest single runway airport, in terms of pax numbers at least, and has been for a number of years. In terms of movements, I couldn't give you an average, but I have heard before that the record number was in the region of 70 movements in an hour. That's some efficient ATC.

[Seljuk22]

QR will pull out of LGW
Travel News | Travel News Online | Travel Daily UK

[compton3bravo]

Yest another one departs

Hot on the heels of Qatar pulling out of Gatwick comes the news that Air Baltic is also pulling out of Gatwick along with a number of other European cities blaming Ryanair and Wizz for introducing new services from Vilnuis.

[LGW_08R]

In reply to C3B's post. The only route Air Baltic have dropped is the Vilnius route, Riga will still operate.

None the less, still a shame to see these two reductions on flights and the loss of another airline.

[jpthomas72]

BT's Vilnius route was very half-hearted: 3/week, only in the summer. Fares pretty high, comparable to connecting flights from LHR. Not a big loss. They had the chance to keep VNO-LGW strong, but decided to let it dry-out over this winter (when there were no direct flights at all VNO-London), so VNO looked for alternatives and found Wizzair (LTN) and Ryanair (STN). A substantial fraction of the RIX passengers were actually for VNO (RIX-VNO is a shuttle, some 7x daily), but those will now be less. Of course they still have all those e.g. Russian or Estonian connections via RIX. Plus to western Lithuania (PLQ) were BT still has the monopoly. BTW I guess not many of you still remember the proud 'Lithuanian Airlines' sign in the North Terminal by the BA check-in.

[adfly]

Weren't Emirates looking at upgrading the morning DXB flight from a 772 to a 77W sometime soon. I wonder if they will consider using the A380 on one of the flights to make up for the capacity to the middle east lost by the QR pullout.

[MUFC_fan]

I think the capacity is about right now. LGW seems very much as if it's becoming a long haul airport mainly for leisure travel as opposed to both.

I think EK will be content with the decrease in competition but traffic, if there is any excess, will simply move over to LHR.

Just my opinion anyway, others may differ but I seriously doubt we'll see an A380 at LGW from DXB any time soon...

[adfly]

I was mainly thinking about the connecting traffic to the endless eastern destinations both leisure and business orientated which the MEB3 airlines seem to serve!! An A380 may be a step to far for now but I have heard a couple of times about the morning flight being upgraded to a 77W and this is supported by the fact that Emirates want to get rid of some of their older 772's replacing them with some of the 77W's on order.

[pwalhx]

It will probably ahve to wait till they have an A380 spare to operate the route anyway.

[Skipness One Echo]

Weren't Emirates looking at upgrading the morning DXB flight from a 772 to a 77W sometime soon. I wonder if they will consider using the A380 on one of the flights to make up for the capacity to the middle east lost by the QR pullout.

It did used to be and often still is a B773 or B77W. There are no A380 stands anywhere near the terminal buildings, I believe the A380 stands are the 230s, the new remote stands beyond Hangar 7.