Gatwick-3

[SWBKCB]

Aeroroutes reporting that Air Algerie have dropped the proposed Algiers flts.

Air Algerie Removes London Gatwick NS24 Schedule Listing

[vectisman]

Originally Posted by SWBKCB

Aeroroutes reporting that Air Algerie have dropped the proposed Algiers flts.

Air Algerie Removes London Gatwick NS24 Schedule Listing

They always seemed vague about starting services in any case.

[nguba]

Good to see BA returning to BKK and expanding to Asia at Gatwick.

[Sotonsean]

Turkmenistan Airlines

Yet another airline announces service to London Gatwick.

Turkmenistan Airlines in the Northern summer 2024 season plans to add Ashgabat to London Gatwick which will replace existing service to London Heathrow. From 03 April 2023 this flight will flown on a weekly basis with a Boeing 777-200LR.

T5423 ASH 12.00 LGW 15.10 B77L 3
T5424 LGW 16.55 ASH 03.00* B77L 3

The airlines schedule on/after May 01 2024 currently lists Boeing 737-800.

Credit to aeroroutes.com

Excluding British Airways but for summer 2024 London Gatwick will see service from 23 "national carriers", including 10 intercontinental.

As far as London Gatwick is concerned the news only gets better. The airport has started 2024 in a fantastic way with new airlines and destinations added to the airports ever increasing portfolio.

This is to you JW95, who's next?

[Sotonsean]

Air India

Air India have cancelled their planned flight from Bangaluru to London Gatwick. The route was not open for reservations at the time.

Air India also announced the cancellation of Ho Chi Ming City, which was planned to start on the same day as London Gatwick.

This could, of course, be down to aircraft and pilot shortage.

With Bangaluru being such a large and important city in India, I'm sure that Air India will want to resume their own flights to London. Hopefully, at some point in the future, Air India will re-announce Bangaluru to London Gatwick.

[JW95]

Originally Posted by Sotonsean

Yet another airline announces service to London Gatwick.

Turkmenistan Airlines in the Northern summer 2024 season plans to add Ashgabat to London Gatwick which will replace existing service to London Heathrow. From 03 April 2023 this flight will flown on a weekly basis with a Boeing 777-200LR.

T5423 ASH 12.00 LGW 15.10 B77L 3
T5424 LGW 16.55 ASH 03.00* B77L 3

The airlines schedule on/after May 01 2024 currently lists Boeing 737-800.

Credit to aeroroutes.com

Excluding British Airways but for summer 2024 London Gatwick will see service from 23 "national carriers", including 10 intercontinental.

As far as London Gatwick is concerned the news only gets better. The airport has started 2024 in a fantastic way with new airlines and destinations added to the airports ever increasing portfolio.

This is to you JW95, who's next?

Excellent news once again LGW really is continuing to go from strength to strength- it is quite remarkable to look back at the Gatwick in the last few years of ownership under BAA during 2006-9 and see how far it has come on since BAA have left- and GIP's strategy really has paid off Thanks for thinking of me my friend, Sotonsean, always appreciated

In terms of who will be next- I genuinely think that with the likes of Singapore Airlines, Air Mauritius, ITA Airways having recently either joined, or soon to start LGW, I reckon that anyone - be it full service or LCC, could be next, so almost a "free for all" situation, especially with LGW being increasingly viewed as a strong alternative to LHR. In terms of the most likely airlines, I think the following will look into launching/relaunching LGW in the near future as either moving out of LHR entirely, expanding services beyond Heathrow or expanding to London:

Vietnam Airlines
Cathay Pacific
Korean Air
Qantas (depending on their project sunrise, they could decide to shift the existing LHR-SIN service to LGW given slot restrictions at LHR, making LHR non-stop only to Australia, giving travellers the one-stop option from LGW)
Thai Airways
SAS Airlines
Sri Lankan Airlines
Tarom
Etihad Airways
Middle East Airlines
Hong Kong Airlines (will very much depend on what CX decide to do with LGW in the long term, as they still have not returned to LGW since Feb 2020).

[FlyGatwick]

Air India

Originally Posted by Sotonsean

Air India have cancelled their planned flight from Bangaluru to London Gatwick. The route was not open for reservations at the time.

Air India also announced the cancellation of Ho Chi Ming City, which was planned to start on the same day as London Gatwick.

This could, of course, be down to aircraft and pilot shortage.

With Bangaluru being such a large and important city in India, I'm sure that Air India will want to resume their own flights to London. Hopefully, at some point in the future, Air India will re-announce Bangaluru to London Gatwick.

Agreed. This is most likely an aircraft availability and staffing issue, with this service likely to be reinstated later during the year (together with the cancelled Delhi - Ho Chi Minh City service which had been due to start on the same day as Bengaluru-Gatwick).

Having said that, another reason for the apparent postponement in the case of Gatwick - Bengaluru could be linked to the Tata group apparently being interested in taking over Sri Lankan Airlines according to some Indian media reports. For context, under the (most) recent IMF bailout for the Sri Lankan government, the SL government must privatise its (mostly) loss-making, heavily indebted state enterprises, with Sri Lankan Airlines top of the list. As a sweetener for interested parties, the SL government has apparently agreed to absorb the airlines half-a-billion US dollar debt, with the Tatas (so far) reportedly being the seriously interested bidder. I think what really attracts the Tatas to consider putting in a bid for Sri Lankan Airlines is its nine weekly slot pairs at Heathrow. If Tatas succeed in taking over the Lankan flag carrier debt-free, the ownership rights to the airlines highly prized Heathrow slots will pass to the Indian conglomerate. It then depends what they're going to do with these slots (comprised of a daily, commonly timed evening slot pair and two additional weekly, commonly timed late-morning / mid-day slot pairs). Unless the SL government makes it a condition of any successful bidder for their country's flag carrier to retain access to Heathrow (similar to what the Irish government negotiated with IAG as a precondition for taking over Aer Lingus) - and, in my opinion, given the much weaker negotiating hand of the SL government compared with its Irish counterpart back in the day as well as the fact tgat Sri Lankan Airlines is in far worse financial shape now than Aer Lingus was back then, the chances of this happening are rather remote, Tatas will most likely repurpose the newly acquired slots to expand Air India's footprint at Heathrow, either by fortifying their flagship airline's competitive position on both Heathrow-Delhi and Heathrow-Mumbai or by relaunching flights to Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the two main Indian IT hubs on the Deccan peninsula of southern India, with Sri Lankan's current Heathrow-Colombo flights most likely relegated to Gatwick (which, from a financial perspective, would represent the best use of the expanded Tata group airlines' slots at both Heathrow and Gatwick given that air traffic between the UK to the four afoementioned Indian cities is premium (predomina tly business) heavy whereas air traffic between the UK and SL is almost entirely leisure and VFR).

[FlyGatwick]

Who's next?

Originally Posted by JW95

Excellent news once again LGW really is continuing to go from strength to strength- it is quite remarkable to look back at the Gatwick in the last few years of ownership under BAA during 2006-9 and see how far it has come on since BAA have left- and GIP's strategy really has paid off Thanks for thinking of me my friend, Sotonsean, always appreciated

In terms of who will be next- I genuinely think that with the likes of Singapore Airlines, Air Mauritius, ITA Airways having recently either joined, or soon to start LGW, I reckon that anyone - be it full service or LCC, could be next, so almost a "free for all" situation, especially with LGW being increasingly viewed as a strong alternative to LHR. In terms of the most likely airlines, I think the following will look into launching/relaunching LGW in the near future as either moving out of LHR entirely, expanding services beyond Heathrow or expanding to London:

Vietnam Airlines
Cathay Pacific
Korean Air
Qantas (depending on their project sunrise, they could decide to shift the existing LHR-SIN service to LGW given slot restrictions at LHR, making LHR non-stop only to Australia, giving travellers the one-stop option from LGW)
Thai Airways
SAS Airlines
Sri Lankan Airlines
Tarom
Etihad Airways
Middle East Airlines
Hong Kong Airlines (will very much depend on what CX decide to do with LGW in the long term, as they still have not returned to LGW since Feb 2020).

I mostly agree with what you say, except for: Korean Air.

Korean Air and (to a lesser extent), Middle East Airlines.

Given that Korean Air is in the process of absorbing Asiana, its main home-grown rival, I think it unlikely that the relevant com petition authorities in the various jurisdictions in which both Korean Air and Asiana operate (and dominate as far as South Korean airlines are concerned), will agree to an expanded Korean Air to increase its dominance even further by increasing its footprint, even if that means adding additional capacity in the London market at Gatwick rather than Heathrow. Far more likely in my opinion is that respective competition authorities will encourage a new (full-service) long-haul airline like Air Premia to enter the UK - South Korea market. However, in my opinion, specifically regarding kaunching new services from Gatwick, it is unlikely that any airline based in Northeast Asia (other than China) would want to do this until the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been settled one way or another and Russian air space has reopened to all airlines given that Gatwick routes generally attract fewer premium. passengers than their Heathrow counterparts, who would help the airlines cover the additional expense of flying more circuitous routes skirting Russian airspace. Once Russian airspace is open to all airlines again, we could even see the likes of Japan Airlines relaunching flights to Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai from Gatwick as JAL is currently using its Heathrow slots to fly to Tokyo Haneda only.

Re Middle East Airlines, I'm not sure whether expanding their footprint in London is a near-term priority for them, especially given their unsettled neighbourhood.

Additionally, re Sri Lankan Airlines coming to Gatwick, I think it depends on whether the Sri Lankan government will be can successful in privarising the airline - a condition imposed by the IMF as part of the country's most recent bailout, with India's Tata conglomerate (the owners of Indian flag carrier Air India) rumoured to be interested in bidding for Sri Lankan according to Indian.media reports. The alternative, i.e. the Sri Lankan government failing to find a buyer for their airline, is likely to result in the airline being grounded and shut down as it's losses and accumulated debt have become unsustainable.

My additions to your list are as flows:

Starlux, the new, reportedly highly acclaimed Taiwanese full-service airline run by the same people who set up EVA Airways ca. 30 years ago: Gatwick-Taipei (probably using A350-900s).

Jetstar (instead of Qantas) if the Qantas group decides to maintain a one-stop UK-Australia air link once the project sunrise non-stops between Heathrow and the Australian east coast have started (now relortedly pushed back to 2026), should the Qantas group decide that there won't e sufficient premuim traffic left to make a one-stop service viable. In that case, the aircraft equipment would be a high-density Jetstar 787-8 instesad of a oremium-heavy Qantas 787-9 and the intermediate stop would more likely be Bangkok rather than Singapore.

Air Malaysia: Gatwick - Kuala Lumpur (maybe).

South African Airways: Gatwick-Joburg and Gatwick - Cape Town (the airline's financial situation permitting).

If Thai decide to come to Gatwick, they could launch flights to both Bangkok and Phuket (winter seasonal), with 787-9s probably doing Bangkok and-8s going to Phuket.

Similar to Thai, Vietnam Airlines could consider flying winter seasonally to Da Nang (in addition to serving Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi all-year round) should they decide to come to Gatwick.

Short-haul, I still would very much like to see an Air France - KLM group airline - preferably KLM - come to Gatwick if they could take over the slots to be vacated by Aer Lingus at the end of the month.

Could we perhaps see Aero Italia coming to Gatwick?

[FlyGatwick]

Who's next (cont)

Originally Posted by FlyGatwick

I mostly agree with what you say, except for: Korean Air.

Korean Air and (to a lesser extent), Middle East Airlines.

Given that Korean Air is in the process of absorbing Asiana, its main home-grown rival, I think it unlikely that the relevant com petition authorities in the various jurisdictions in which both Korean Air and Asiana operate (and dominate as far as South Korean airlines are concerned), will agree to an expanded Korean Air to increase its dominance even further by increasing its footprint, even if that means adding additional capacity in the London market at Gatwick rather than Heathrow. Far more likely in my opinion is that respective competition authorities will encourage a new (full-service) long-haul airline like Air Premia to enter the UK - South Korea market. However, in my opinion, specifically regarding kaunching new services from Gatwick, it is unlikely that any airline based in Northeast Asia (other than China) would want to do this until the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been settled one way or another and Russian air space has reopened to all airlines given that Gatwick routes generally attract fewer premium. passengers than their Heathrow counterparts, who would help the airlines cover the additional expense of flying more circuitous routes skirting Russian airspace. Once Russian airspace is open to all airlines again, we could even see the likes of Japan Airlines relaunching flights to Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai from Gatwick as JAL is currently using its Heathrow slots to fly to Tokyo Haneda only.

Re Middle East Airlines, I'm not sure whether expanding their footprint in London is a near-term priority for them, especially given their unsettled neighbourhood.

Additionally, re Sri Lankan Airlines coming to Gatwick, I think it depends on whether the Sri Lankan government will be can successful in privarising the airline - a condition imposed by the IMF as part of the country's most recent bailout, with India's Tata conglomerate (the owners of Indian flag carrier Air India) rumoured to be interested in bidding for Sri Lankan according to Indian.media reports. The alternative, i.e. the Sri Lankan government failing to find a buyer for their airline, is likely to result in the airline being grounded and shut down as it's losses and accumulated debt have become unsustainable.

My additions to your list are as flows:

Starlux, the new, reportedly highly acclaimed Taiwanese full-service airline run by the same people who set up EVA Airways ca. 30 years ago: Gatwick-Taipei (probably using A350-900s).

Jetstar (instead of Qantas) if the Qantas group decides to maintain a one-stop UK-Australia air link once the project sunrise non-stops between Heathrow and the Australian east coast have started (now relortedly pushed back to 2026), should the Qantas group decide that there won't e sufficient premuim traffic left to make a one-stop service viable. In that case, the aircraft equipment would be a high-density Jetstar 787-8 instesad of a oremium-heavy Qantas 787-9 and the intermediate stop would more likely be Bangkok rather than Singapore.

Air Malaysia: Gatwick - Kuala Lumpur (maybe).

South African Airways: Gatwick-Joburg and Gatwick - Cape Town (the airline's financial situation permitting).

If Thai decide to come to Gatwick, they could launch flights to both Bangkok and Phuket (winter seasonal), with 787-9s probably doing Bangkok and-8s going to Phuket.

Similar to Thai, Vietnam Airlines could consider flying winter seasonally to Da Nang (in addition to serving Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi all-year round) should they decide to come to Gatwick.

Short-haul, I still would very much like to see an Air France - KLM group airline - preferably KLM - come to Gatwick if they could take over the slots to be vacated by Aer Lingus at the end of the month.

Could we perhaps see Aero Italia coming to Gatwick?

Vistara, as according to airline schedule analyst Sean Moulton, they seem to no longer have access to the five weekly slot pairs they're currently using at Heathrow to fly to / from Mumbai. They could potentially transfer this service to Gatwick, making use of the five weekly additional slot pairs ACL awarded sister airline Air India for this summer season, at least in the interim until Air India has decided whether they're going to reinstate their originally planned Gatwick-Bengaluru service.

[Charley B]

Does anyone know why Qatar airways diverted in on SFO -DOH today ?this is about the third time they have done this ..is it changing crew?

[FlyGatwick]

Who next (cont. ...)

Originally Posted by FlyGatwick

Vistara, as according to airline schedule analyst Sean Moulton, they seem to no longer have access to the five weekly slot pairs they're currently using at Heathrow to fly to / from Mumbai. They could potentially transfer this service to Gatwick, making use of the five weekly additional slot pairs ACL awarded sister airline Air India for this summer season, at least in the interim until Air India has decided whether they're going to reinstate their originally planned Gatwick-Bengaluru service.

Further to my previous comments in this regard, I believe another potential short-haul addition for LGW could be Brussels Airlines.

The reason I'm saying this is in connection with reports of them, their parent, the Lufthansa group and United Airlines (according to some reports Air Canada as well) conducting negotiations about turning Brussels Airlines' BRU base into a global hub for North America - Africa air travel given that an extensive Africa network is Brussels Airlines' USP for obvious historical reasons and that these routes don't appear to be profitable at the moment due to a lack of feeder traffic at BRU. Building up BRU into a hub specialising in Africa connections makes strategic sense for the Lufthansa group given its relative weakness in Africa, especially LH itself in this part of the world vis-à-vis competitors. Ditto for UA / AC given the scarcity of direct flights between North America and Africa. The relevant media reports also quoted the LH group CEO saying that there currently is insufficient short-haul feeder traffic at BRU for Brussels Airlines' African routes to be profitable all-year round, and that this is something that needed addressing as well. Given the extreme shortage of slots at LHR and that the prices these command are far in excess of the profitability additional frequencies on a short-haul feeder route like LHR-BRU can realistically be expected to generate, even under a best-case scenario, IMO this makes it likely that Brussels Airlines would be looking to expand their LON-BRU capacity at LGW if this is what they choose to do (probably in addition to expanding their footprint in the UK regions outside London) to feed additional passengers onto its long-haul flights to Africa at BRU. What IMO would favour Brussels Airlines' resumption of an LGW-BRU feeder route as well is that unlike AMS and CDG / ORY (as well as BCN, FCO and VCE), similar to FRA and ZRH, BRU is not a typical European tourist magnet to attract high-frequency competition from LCCs / ULCCs like easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz.

[laviation]

The same SN that have massively cut back on UK ops in the past few years?

[SWBKCB]

The Belgian Govt imposed additonal taxes on short haul flights, with LGW definitely within the specificied range. Train is probably quicker/more convenient.

Short-haul, I still would very much like to see an Air France - KLM group airline - preferably KLM - come to Gatwick if they could take over the slots to be vacated by Aer Lingus at the end of the month.

Why would IAG hand over slots to a competitor when they are looking to expand their own operation?

[vectisman]

At the moment Gatwick to Amsterdam by BA Euroflyer is not available after the end of the 2024 summer season. It may have been dropped.
It is 3 daily for most of the summer 2024. It has been a BUA/BCAL/BA route from Gatwick for 60 plus years. A surprise if it is to be discontinued.

[JW95]

Long haul expansion at LGW

Originally Posted by FlyGatwick

I mostly agree with what you say, except for: Korean Air.

Korean Air and (to a lesser extent), Middle East Airlines.

Given that Korean Air is in the process of absorbing Asiana, its main home-grown rival, I think it unlikely that the relevant com petition authorities in the various jurisdictions in which both Korean Air and Asiana operate (and dominate as far as South Korean airlines are concerned), will agree to an expanded Korean Air to increase its dominance even further by increasing its footprint, even if that means adding additional capacity in the London market at Gatwick rather than Heathrow. Far more likely in my opinion is that respective competition authorities will encourage a new (full-service) long-haul airline like Air Premia to enter the UK - South Korea market. However, in my opinion, specifically regarding kaunching new services from Gatwick, it is unlikely that any airline based in Northeast Asia (other than China) would want to do this until the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been settled one way or another and Russian air space has reopened to all airlines given that Gatwick routes generally attract fewer premium. passengers than their Heathrow counterparts, who would help the airlines cover the additional expense of flying more circuitous routes skirting Russian airspace. Once Russian airspace is open to all airlines again, we could even see the likes of Japan Airlines relaunching flights to Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai from Gatwick as JAL is currently using its Heathrow slots to fly to Tokyo Haneda only.

Re Middle East Airlines, I'm not sure whether expanding their footprint in London is a near-term priority for them, especially given their unsettled neighbourhood.

Additionally, re Sri Lankan Airlines coming to Gatwick, I think it depends on whether the Sri Lankan government will be can successful in privarising the airline - a condition imposed by the IMF as part of the country's most recent bailout, with India's Tata conglomerate (the owners of Indian flag carrier Air India) rumoured to be interested in bidding for Sri Lankan according to Indian.media reports. The alternative, i.e. the Sri Lankan government failing to find a buyer for their airline, is likely to result in the airline being grounded and shut down as it's losses and accumulated debt have become unsustainable.

My additions to your list are as flows:

Starlux, the new, reportedly highly acclaimed Taiwanese full-service airline run by the same people who set up EVA Airways ca. 30 years ago: Gatwick-Taipei (probably using A350-900s).

Jetstar (instead of Qantas) if the Qantas group decides to maintain a one-stop UK-Australia air link once the project sunrise non-stops between Heathrow and the Australian east coast have started (now relortedly pushed back to 2026), should the Qantas group decide that there won't e sufficient premuim traffic left to make a one-stop service viable. In that case, the aircraft equipment would be a high-density Jetstar 787-8 instesad of a oremium-heavy Qantas 787-9 and the intermediate stop would more likely be Bangkok rather than Singapore.

Air Malaysia: Gatwick - Kuala Lumpur (maybe).

South African Airways: Gatwick-Joburg and Gatwick - Cape Town (the airline's financial situation permitting).

If Thai decide to come to Gatwick, they could launch flights to both Bangkok and Phuket (winter seasonal), with 787-9s probably doing Bangkok and-8s going to Phuket.

Similar to Thai, Vietnam Airlines could consider flying winter seasonally to Da Nang (in addition to serving Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi all-year round) should they decide to come to Gatwick.

Short-haul, I still would very much like to see an Air France - KLM group airline - preferably KLM - come to Gatwick if they could take over the slots to be vacated by Aer Lingus at the end of the month.

Could we perhaps see Aero Italia coming to Gatwick?

I agree with you. Given the instability in the middle east and Lebanon at the moment, I don’t see MEA in a position to expand their London operations, especially with other airlines, including BA and FR having left Beirut entirely in recent years. Rather, my argument was that could we see MEA doing what ITA Airways and Air Mauritius have done, and leave LHR for LGW on the grounds of costs? Same also goes for Sri Lankan Airlines- selling valuable LHR slots for urgent capital whilst still continuing to serve London via Gatwick may be something they are considering. LGW of today is an entirely different airport to the one it was when BAA owned it, and GIP have done incredibly well to attract and retain such a wide variety of airlines, both short and long haul- look at SQ for example. It is increasingly being looked to by airlines as a serious alternative to LHR, especially as the future of the third runway is still very much in the clouds and hasn’t progressed in recent years. I believe that airlines are increasingly realising that there is a stronger likelihood of the second runway at LGW opening before LHR’s third, and I expect to see the trend of new airlines announcing LGW operations continue. Regarding some of the others you’ve flagged up as potential entrants:

StarLux- I agree, I can see them announcing LGW soon. Given the lack of slot availability at LHR, LGW would be a great opportunity for them to enter into the London market, whilst providing additional capacity into TPE (CI currently only serves LHR-TPE 5 times per week).

JetStar- I’m unsure of this. SQ tried something similar through Scoot 2 years ago when they flew LGW-SIN via BKK. That didn’t last long, and SQ have now chosen to (re)open Gatwick by launching their own direct flights to SIN. Sadly history has shown that low-cost, long-haul is tough to make a success of (e.g. Norwegian, Air Asia X). IF QF do decide that there is viability to retain the longstanding one-stop flight to Australia via SIN, they will naturally first look to see if this can be accommodated alongside the other non-stop ‘Project Sunrise’ flights at LHR. If this isn’t possible for slot reasons, then I believe they would then look at LGW with the 789, but again, there would have to be significant demand and financial grounds for them to do this. They may of course just decide to drop LON-SIN entirely in favour of non-stop flights only.

Malaysia Airlines- An interesting one, out of curiosity, what makes you think MH would look to launch at Gatwick? They currently fly LHR-KUL twice per day with the A359, which represents a significant capacity decrease on the route versus the 744s and A380s that used to fly to London. Given this, they may look to accommodate any additional (spillover) demand at LGW given the slot situation at LHR, perhaps at a reduced frequency with the A359.

South African Airways- I agree, I could see SA serving LGW on the grounds of cheaper costs versus Heathrow, given the airline’s current financial situation.

Thai Airways- Similar to MH. Their capacity at LHR today is far less with the two daily 77Ws serving LHR-BKK compared to the 744s and A380s that have both since been retired. I recall reading somewhere, not long after they introduced the A380 to Europe before LHR that the CEO at the time had a preference of increasing frequency on LHR-BKK over introducing the A380 on the route, mentioning that he would have preferred to have seen 3 daily 744s flying to BKK from Heathrow. If frequency increase is still what Thai want, then I could see them at LGW at some point with the 789. They may of course decide to launch LGW in response to BA reintroducing BKK (which will also be from Gatwick for the first time).

Japan Airlines- would be a nice addition to Gatwick if they're looking to increase capacity to London. I agree- I think they would likely serve LGW-NRT (with HND being maintained at LHR), in addition to LGW-KIX (Osaka).

As regards European feeder carriers at Gatwick, I do see LH strengthening their existing LGW-FRA service in the near future, as well as potentially adding Munich, which also serves as an important hub for Lufthansa. With Air France-KLM, difficult to say. I reckon the slot situation at AMS will hinder KL’s growth. If anything, I think KLM will prioritise capacity growth on existing routes over opening up new routes, including Gatwick. I’d imagine Air France would be the same, although I am not sure if CDG has a similar slot situation that AMS currently has. Regarding Aero Italia, I don’t think so, especially with ITA Airways soon arriving. I think they would be more likely to go to STN if they wanted to open their own service to London.

[vectisman]

Don't get carried away!
Looking realistically at your list, perhaps Cathay may resume services this winter or next summer. All the rest I think are a no.

[TCU]

A deal, led by the SA Govt, to re-finance SAA through a private investor, collapsed last week. SAA can safely be struck from the LGW aspiration list.

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

Spectator's Balcony is a better place for many of these, they're personal wishlists and don't really add anything to the conversation. Have you guys seen the loads on LGW-FRA? They're dire from what I've seen. Aer Lingus have just canned DUB and BA dropping AMS looks like IAG focussing more on LGW as a differentiator rather than complimenting LHR short haul. KLM are fat for LHR slots so would be unlikely IMHO. I sometimes wonder if even LHR-CDG adds much for Air France nowadays, it's gone all A220 of late so it would be masochistic of AF to undermine that further by opening LGW. They don't even offer LCY anymore either.

Btw is Singapore going North or South?

[EI-BUD]

Originally Posted by Skipness One Foxtrot

Aer Lingus have just canned DUB and BA dropping AMS looks like IAG focussing more on LGW as a differentiator rather than complimenting LHR short haul. KLM are fat for LHR slots so would be unlikely IMHO. I sometimes wonder if even LHR-CDG adds much for Air France nowadays, it's gone all A220 of late so it would be masochistic of AF to undermine that further by opening LGW. They don't even offer LCY anymore either.

Btw is Singapore going North or South?

I really doubt BA will drop AMS/LGW. Unlikely they'll surrender scarce AMS slots, granted they could transfer to other partners. They seem to have balanced the cost equation with easyJet and as such I'm not sure we'll see them leave such a popular route to easyJet. Still lots of time to schedule that, very little winter bookings would be taking place at this early stage, some not much.

Re earlier comments in the thread about EI slots at LGW, it's my understanding that the final decision about LGW was made at reasonably short notice and BA wasn't ready for it and there were no immediate uses for the slots by BA/VY. Likely gives rise to the range of new services being added at LGW by new customers to LGW. Well done LGW on attracting such new business.

I understand the rules on slot usage are being fully restored from start of S24 and EI will hence need to use all of its LHR slots daily. This is why they made the decision to concentrate their business at LHR as their London airport.

[willy wombat]

Originally Posted by vectisman

At the moment Gatwick to Amsterdam by BA Euroflyer is not available after the end of the 2024 summer season. It may have been dropped.
It is 3 daily for most of the summer 2024. It has been a BUA/BCAL/BA route from Gatwick for 60 plus years. A surprise if it is to be discontinued.

Not entirely correct. There was quite a long period 80s/90s when the only operator LGWAMS was Transavia. Cityflyer Express started on the route late 1990s (as BA Express). It was one of CityFlyer’s most profitable routes.