Gatwick-3

[vectisman]

BA Long Haul Gatwick Winter 2022/2023

Tampa 5 weekly

Cancun Daily

Doha Daily

St Lucia Daily

Antigua Daily

Grenada 3 weekly via one stop

Punta Cana 3 weekly

Kingston 3 weekly

St Kitts 2 weekly via one stop

Tobago 2 weekly via one stop

Port of Spain 5 weekly via one stop

Mauritius 3 weekly

San Jose Costa Rica 3 weekly

Bridgetown 5 weekly (Plus daily from LHR)

Cape Town 3 weekly from 13th December

New York Daily until 16th January and from 10th February

Orlando Up to 11 weekly when Orlando flights consolidated at LGW in early December when LHR flights stop.

Islamabad Daily (In timetable but not bookable)

The Caribbean One Stops are either via Antigua or St Lucia

[vectisman]

British Airways Planned Gatwick Long Haul Summer 2023 As of August 11th 2023. Further additions and changes anticipated.

New York Daily

Tampa Daily

Orlando Daily

Antigua 5 weekly

St Lucia Daily

Kingston 4 weekly

Cancun Daily

Doha Daily

Islamabad Daily (In timetable but not bookable)

Port of Spain 3 weekly

Mauritius 3 weekly

Punta Cana 3 weekly non-stop (was via one stop in Summer 2022)

Aruba 2 weekly via Antigua

Georgetown 2 weekly via St Lucia

Grenada 3 weekly via St Lucia

Tobago 2 weekly via St Lucia

St Kitts 2 weekly via Antigua

[vectisman]

Originally Posted by JW95

Now with JetBlue serving both JFK and BOS from LGW, and Norse starting up JFK from tomorrow, does this make a VS return to Gatwick more likely? BA have also resumed their JFK flights, and Norse are rumoured to have further routes planned from LGW in the pipeline further down the line. Plus, with LHR currently plagued with numerous capacity restrictions at present, I wonder if VS would be tempted to shift the leisure/Caribbean network back to LGW, to allow the airline to utilise it's LHR slot portfolio for the more business-orientated routes? Surely VS will need to make a decision on LGW sooner, rather than later, or else risk losing their slots that they've hung onto.

I believe that VS currently has slots leased to EasyJet and Norwegian. With BA expanding their long haul offering to the Caribbean and South America from Gatwick, along with the arrival of Norse and Jet Blue VS will have to decide what they want to do about Gatwick longer-term.

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

Excluding Delta, Virgin's current London destinations are listed below. A reminder PVG and HKG are suspended until Asia re-opens properly and TPA-LHR is launching, I suspect Delta might want this one to stay where it is, as both MCO and TPA are seeing more US POS and feed. There's 7 Caribbean destinations currently at LHR that might have a good case to be better served out of LGW but are the economies of scale of such a downsized base worthwhile? Yes probably, as HAL continue hiking charges up and up.

USA ATL
USA AUS
USA BOS
USA IAD
USA JFK
USA LAS
USA LAX
USA MCO
USA MIA
USA SEA
USA SFO
Caribbean ANU
Caribbean BGI
Caribbean GND
Caribbean MBJ
Caribbean NAS
Caribbean SVD
Caribbean TAB
India / Pakistan BOM
India / Pakistan DEL
India / Pakistan ISB
India / Pakistan LHE
Africa JNB
Africa LOS
Middle East TLV

[FlyboyUK]

Anyone know what the plans are for the old Virgin hangar? I see they’ve been repainting it over the last few days

[vectisman]

I have heard rumours from some Gatwick friends that it has been acquired by as yet an unknown company. Virgin signage has also been removed.

[vectisman]

Originally Posted by Skipness One Foxtrot

Excluding Delta, Virgin's current London destinations are listed below. A reminder PVG and HKG are suspended until Asia re-opens properly and TPA-LHR is launching, I suspect Delta might want this one to stay where it is, as both MCO and TPA are seeing more US POS and feed. There's 7 Caribbean destinations currently at LHR that might have a good case to be better served out of LGW but are the economies of scale of such a downsized base worthwhile? Yes probably, as HAL continue hiking charges up and up.

USA ATL
USA AUS
USA BOS
USA IAD
USA JFK
USA LAS
USA LAX
USA MCO
USA MIA
USA SEA
USA SFO
Caribbean ANU
Caribbean BGI
Caribbean GND
Caribbean MBJ
Caribbean NAS
Caribbean SVD
Caribbean TAB
India / Pakistan BOM
India / Pakistan DEL
India / Pakistan ISB
India / Pakistan LHE
Africa JNB
Africa LOS
Middle East TLV

Thanks for that information. I also think Orlando is another possibility for Virgin at Gatwick. With Heathrow charges that route can’t be as competitive with BA as previously. BA have up to 11 flights a week to Orlando from Gatwick during the winter! That’s 4 more than pre-Covid. Virgin continue with daily at Heathrow with BA having consolidated Orlando at Gatwick until next Spring.

[vectisman]

Skipness I also agree with what you say about Tampa. Virgin will depend on USA originating connecting traffic to make it work as it is not particularly high yielding. BA will be happy to continue to pick up mainly the U.K. originating traffic which is primarily leisure and cruise orientated plus the lower cost of operating that flight from Gatwick.

[globetrotter79]

Originally Posted by Skipness One Foxtrot

Excluding Delta, Virgin's current London destinations are listed below. A reminder PVG and HKG are suspended until Asia re-opens properly and TPA-LHR is launching, I suspect Delta might want this one to stay where it is, as both MCO and TPA are seeing more US POS and feed. There's 7 Caribbean destinations currently at LHR that might have a good case to be better served out of LGW but are the economies of scale of such a downsized base worthwhile? Yes probably, as HAL continue hiking charges up and up.

USA ATL
USA AUS
USA BOS
USA IAD
USA JFK
USA LAS
USA LAX
USA MCO
USA MIA
USA SEA
USA SFO
Caribbean ANU
Caribbean BGI
Caribbean GND
Caribbean MBJ
Caribbean NAS
Caribbean SVD
Caribbean TAB
India / Pakistan BOM
India / Pakistan DEL
India / Pakistan ISB
India / Pakistan LHE
Africa JNB
Africa LOS
Middle East TLV

If Virgin haven't operated out of Gatwick this summer, will they not have 'burnt' their historic slot rights for future years?

[pabely]

Originally Posted by globetrotter79

If Virgin haven't operated out of Gatwick this summer, will they not have 'burnt' their historic slot rights for future years?

Not if they have leased them out.

[brianj]

Remember that with the state of the UK economy that demand for next year could significantly reduce and scupper many airline plans.

[vectisman]

Originally Posted by brianj

Remember that with the state of the UK economy that demand for next year could significantly reduce and scupper many airline plans.

Maybe but after the last couple of years I think people will be reluctant to completely scrap all travel plans. Also I think that, whatever planet Truss and Sunak are on at that the moment,
they will return to Earth pretty sharpish and reality when one of them becomes PM and will do something to mitigate the 'crisis'. Unless of course the plan is electoral suicide! (here's hoping lol!)

[vectisman]

An update to the schedule I posted above for BA Euroflyer Winter 2022 to Winter 2023
During the past few days BA Euroflyer has increased the frequency of flights to the initial destinations released in January 2022 for Winter 2022/2023.
Maybe this is an indication that demand has been high.
Alicante from 6 to 7 per week
Arrecife from 6 to 7 per week
Faro from 10 to 14 per week
Turin from 10 to 20 per week
Seville from 6 to 7 per week
Bordeaux from 9 to 10 per week
Gran Canaria from 3 to 4 per week

[JW95]

VS

Originally Posted by vectisman

I believe that VS currently has slots leased to EasyJet and Norwegian. With BA expanding their long haul offering to the Caribbean and South America from Gatwick, along with the arrival of Norse and Jet Blue VS will have to decide what they want to do about Gatwick longer-term.

Absolutely. I've no doubt at all that VS are watching this very carefully. I'm sure they are aware that they will need to make a long-term decision RE. Gatwick slots sooner rather than later. With demand for air travel now picking up, plus with LHR faced with numerous capacity issues, I'm sure that long haul carriers will be looking at LGW, particularly given that charges at LHR are going up. Prior to Covid, VS were serving the leisure network with old 744s and A332s from LGW, both of which have since been phased out. Perhaps they could make an LGW leisure base work with some of the new A339s coming online?

[davidjohnson6]

New winter ski route to Salen-Trysil / Scandinavia Mountains airport. I don't know who is flying or what the schedule will be though. If anyone has info, would be keen to read more
SAS tried a scheduled route to LHR last winter, but they ended up cutting back the schedule to flying just over UK half term and don't seem to be returning.
https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/sal...teterna-lockar

[ATNotts]

Originally Posted by vectisman

Maybe but after the last couple of years I think people will be reluctant to completely scrap all travel plans. Also I think that, whatever planet Truss and Sunak are on at that the moment,
they will return to Earth pretty sharpish and reality when one of them becomes PM and will do something to mitigate the 'crisis'. Unless of course the plan is electoral suicide! (here's hoping lol!)

They may well be reluctant, but if its a choice between keeping the lights on and the home warm for six months of the year, or having two weeks on some foreign (or indeed UK) beach only a fool would choose the holiday. Of course they could just take a loan out but that is also risky at the moment with interest rates on an upward trajectory. Not wishing to be political but one of the two candidates appears to be ideologically opposed to doing anything to help out the "squeezed middle" who form the bulk of the travel industry's client base.

I really am not sure who the travel industry are trying to kid, their collective heads appear to be buried in the sand at the moment (pardon the pun).

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

Did anything ever come of Vistara launching Gatters? I ask as there's a UK015 0635 DEL on the arrivals page for tomorrow, but FR24 has nothing. Placeholder fallen across into the live feed I assume?

[Sotonsean]

Originally Posted by Skipness One Foxtrot

Did anything ever come of Vistara launching Gatters? I ask as there's a UK015 0635 DEL on the arrivals page for tomorrow, but FR24 has nothing. Placeholder fallen across into the live feed I assume?

I'm pleased that you've brought this up as I was thinking of posting something similar. I noticed there was a Vistara flight listed on the arrivals/departures on Saturday 12 August from Delhi with the same times and flight number and was wondering why.

[go-around flap 15]

Have heard rumours from an ex colleague at Jet2 that they're planning 3 or 4 aircraft based in LGW over the winter season, new base or crewed externally? A bigger operation than last year and perhaps a sign of something to come for the future? Not sure how TUI would feel about that!

[toledoashley]

Originally Posted by go-around flap 15

Have heard rumours from an ex colleague at Jet2 that they're planning 3 or 4 aircraft based in LGW over the winter season, new base or crewed externally? A bigger operation than last year and perhaps a sign of something to come for the future? Not sure how TUI would feel about that!

The base last year were charters for a number of ski operators, and given France wasn’t really fully open at least at the start, this year is expected to be bigger.