Gatwick-3

[772]

But Going to an amber country is legal.

as long as you follow the rules on testing and home quarantine you aren’t breaking the law.

It becomes a grey area when you’re advised not to rather than not being allowed. Surely travel Insurance becomes invalid though if FCO advice against travel to a country?

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

JW95

I would 100% love to agree with you as I love Gatwick and flew many happy times out of it BUT I have been around to know press releases are PR fluff and forgotten tomorrow. They've fought hard for LHR slots and if they can get 1/2 decent ones as COVID casualties disrupt the slot pool, then they can compare LHR vs. LGW numbers and every single US airline that has operated from both airports has upped sticks and left Gatwick. Maybe narrow body A321 NEO ops will mean that will no longer happen but it will literally be unprecedented and we won't know until we're settled into a post COVID world.
Don't set your heart on it but fingers crossed.

[davidjohnson6]

Sounds like Belavia might not be flying to Gatwick for a while
https://news.sky.com/story/transport...ained-12315967

[pabely]

Should have renamed airport London Chelsea today!

[JW95]

Gatwick Airlines- page error?

Just noticed something strange on the LGW terminal page which has recently been updated to now no longer show Virgin Atlantic as operating at LGW. As has been the case for the past year, the South Terminal has been closed until further notice and all airlines are currently operating at the North Terminal. However, it indicates that China Airlines is/will operate from South upon their return later this year, while other airlines, including suspended users (e.g. Cathay Pacific, Air China) are now indicated to be operating North (again, assuming services are reinstated by these carriers in the near future). Is this a page error, or does it indicate that some of these airlines may be in the pipeline to return?

[BA318]

Its all a bit of a guessing game at the moment. China Airlines haven’t managed to get permanent slots at LHR so might come back. CX is doubtful. I imagine it would take a while to get back up to 5 daily at LHR given they are only at 5 per week at the moment. If demand really came back strong then maybe. Otherwise nobody really knows.

[rog747]

Re Virgin Atlantic at Gatwick - fairly soon after Worldwide Air Travel basically screeched to a halt and Lockdowns began over a year ago, Virgin Atlantic having furloughed or laid off most of it's Crews and ground staff formally announced to them that they would NOT ever be returning to LGW.
The brand new LGW Virgin Clubhouse was closed down, and Virgin's Gatwick HQ 'The Office' has been sold.

Ok so, big firms can change their minds over time, but there is no word that I know of VS going back to LGW.

Such a shame really, end of an Era.

[772]

anything can happen but I can’t see VS at LGW in the short to medium term. Maybe in the years to come some seasonal services if demand is such that LHR can’t handle all that VS wants to operate but even then I’m not sure.

EZY is so vitally important to GAL, now more than ever, I think they have 60% (?) of LGW slots? So once they get back to or close to utilising those then LGW will have it’s bread and butter back but replacing the likes of VS, BA short haul and DY won’t be easy. I know Wizz are always making great noises about LGW plans and Norwegian Mk2 may become reality but still gaps to fill

[allnamestaken1]

On a different note,does anybody know if the Gatwick Express is running,if not how do i get from Gatwick to central London.

[ezyBoh]

National Express coach.....

[BAladdy]

National express only operating there 025 service to London at present. It operates 4 x Daily via LHR

[davidjohnson6]

Southern services to Victoria and Thameslink services to London Bridge have been running throughout the pandemic and continue to run, albeit subject to the occasional bit of weekend engineering work

[allnamestaken1]

Thanks for your replys.

[pabely]

Originally Posted by pabely

Should have renamed airport London Chelsea today!

Deffo now!

[brianj]

See Air Senegal are to operate a scheduled service to Stansted this summer operating 3 times a week to Dakar. Isn’t this the kind of traffic that should be selecting Gatwick? May not be a long term service but would at least look good for Gatwick.

[davidjohnson6]

Just before the pandemic, Air Senegal announced a plan to open a route to London in summer 2020 - but it was cancelled during the spring.
Do you have a source to indicate they will begin (or resume) flying to London in summer 2021 ?

[southside bobby]

Appear to be doing well over Dakar-MXP tho increasing to 5pw from 1.7.21 on A321.

[JW95]

VS

772

Sadly, you're right. The airline is/has just undergone an enormous restructuring programme, including fleet downsizing and massive redundancies in an attempt to stay afloat in the midst of this truly awful pandemic. It is such a shame for both the airline and of course, for LGW, as it had historically been the birth place of the airline. Even prior to Covid, it is arguable that VS's commitment to LGW was questionable on the basis of stagnant growth, long standing leisure routes being moved across to LHR (LAS springs to mind) and the "flagship" A350s and 789s being stationed at LHR while older A332s and 744s were handed down to Gatwick. Saying that, I do recall VS planning to launch service to JFK from Gatwick, although I suspect this was largely driven to drive DY/BA off the route as opposed to base expansion. I really hope that VS will return to Gatwick one day, perhaps once LHR fills up again and VS need to utilise their slot portfolio to grow their business route frequencies (JFK, LAX et al.), then its possible the leisure and Caribbean flying will be transferred back to Gatwick. I think VS were quoted as mentioning they would be retaining their Gatwick slot portfolio for this such instance, does anyone know if they still have hold over the slots? They invested £££££££ in their check in/lounge there following the move to the North Terminal, so everything would (presumably) be ready to go for them if they come back.

[772]

this talk of VS retaining their LGW slots for a possible return, surely they mean as long as the slot waivers are in place? The minute the 80/20 rule is returned, or even a 50/50 then they’ll have to give them up surely.

[SWBKCB]

I really hope that VS will return to Gatwick one day, perhaps once LHR fills up again and VS need to utilise their slot portfolio to grow their business route frequencies

This might be what VS might want, but not great for LGW. Surely it's unrealistic for VS to to expect they can continue to block slots when they aren't using them and there are others wanting to fly from LGW.