How is the new Easyjet lounge different from a standard paid-for lounge ? The only difference I can see is that it's set at a lower price point than other lounges and has an area for small kids.
I'm not sure why this needed the involvement of Easyjet instead of an existing lounge operator opening up something with this new admission policy. Do Easyjet intend to do a hard sell of the lounge in the booking process as the dominant operator at North terminal, taking a commission for each lounge access purchase, similiar to car hire ?

Will Easyjet customers (eg those with Plus card, Flight Club or Flexi tickets) get some form of preferential access rate ?

I assume it will bring in some cash, probably an easy up sell at check-in and when booking. It would also offer them the ability to offer a business class style fare. Wouldn’t take much change to do so.

If it has a ‘kids’ policy I’ll stick with the regular Number 1 Lounge thanks.

The last thing I need is to be surrounded by potentially infected Covid kids in an Airport Lounge. At £18.50 minimum as well, no thanks.

Most lounges allow kids. A kid area is actually probably better as it allows the kids to be entertained rather than run around or play iPads out loud.

Personally I’ve never been disturbed by kids in a lounge or on a plane. Obnoxious adults taking zoom calls or loud phone calls are far more common and annoying for me.

I believe it is My Lounge that will become Gateway Lounge and not be the No1 Lounge. You have Clubrooms as well but that is not open again yet.

davidjohnson6

Is the only difference from the existing lounge the orange sign at the front and the easyJet aircraft model?
And what actually is the benefit of being in 'Flight Club'... I've genuinely never used my membership. If they want to appeal to more business passengers (it seems to be fairly appealing already), have a FFP worth having.

From experience, generally you can get through on the phone quicker as a Flight Club member - however, with easyJet I think its the whole digital side they are lacking. Your ‘profile’ doesn’t know if you’re flight club or not, your can’t even see what your membership number is through the profile.

For something like this, whether you pay for easyJet Plus, or a Flight Club member (remembering you have to fly a decent amount of times to qualify) - I know they want to move away from physical cards, but there’s nothing stopping them having digital ones.

vectisman

While I am sure Wizz are still keen to grow at Gatwick, I think growth in the UK is going to be slowed...

With the UK having different travel restrictions to the rest of Europe, and only recently the rules being relaxed, I think the airline has had their feet burnt and reluctant to grow at the rates they were trying to a year ago.

For example their Cardiff base was postponed by a year.

At Luton their main UK operation, they are gradually restoring routes at quite a pace, but frequencies are quite reduced. Budapest use to see 4 return flights a day, that is currently 2 flights a day and Warsaw was 3-4 flights a day, that is currently 1-2 a day.

As far as I am aware, Wizz have not gained new slots at Luton, but managed to recently announce routes to Rome, Venice, Naples, Ljubljana, Odessa and a whole host of other destinations earlier in the year to Spain, Greece and Turkey. All squeezing them in within the current slots they have available.

Maybe that will mean Wizz will start already established routes to London from Gatwick and just spread the daily frequencies to airports both north and south of London?

Air Transat launching Gatwick Quebec for 2022, once a week....wonder how that will play?

gdiddy

Yes & Yes, if you look at LTN schedules in S22 then back to 4 daily on some routes, on the Luton thread I'm sure some analysis will be made on how they can add so many new routes without extra LTN slots. But then again what is in the booking engine does not always reflect what will be flown.
I do expect as more gets flown from LGW then some trimming of LTN schedules will occur but then again new routes added. If they work, duplicate at LGW.

Quebec is an amazingly beautiful city and very cosmopolitan with an obvious French influence and it's well worth the visit. Quebec has many attractions and it's also a fairly affluent city. I personally recommend Quebec as an alternative Canadian destination for those seeking somewhere different to visit in Canada. Hopefully this new connection by Air Transat between Quebec and London Gatwick will prove popular with inbound as well as outbound traffic. I'm sure a fly-drive will be popular amongst in-bound passengers as you could fly into Quebec and fly back from either Montreal or Toronto or vice versa.

BA now actively recruiting management positions for the new Gatwick short haul subsidiary. Aim
is to start operations in Summer 2022.
By Summer 2022 I mean start of airline Summer timetables so probably late March 2022.

wesleyscott

Is it just an intermediate stop on a flight to Montreal or Toronto, so not a full aircraft load - a common Air Transat approach.

YQB
 

All seem to be via a stop at YUL both outbound and inbound, some with rather long connex times - I cannot find any direct non-stops even in high season.

TSC492 Quebec to Gatwick (non-stop) from 11th May to 28th September. TSC728 is the Montreal to Gatwick flight (5 flights a week). Toronto flights are TSC122 and TSC282 (9 flights a week).

A commercial approach on such new operations by semi-charter companies is to put the nonstops on sale (in this case from both Montreal and Quebec) on a given day of the week, and a limit of say half a planeload each for bookings. Knowing how the typical demand curve goes for bookings over time, you get to a point say four months beforehand, or as the 50% point comes close, and reassess whether to consolidate into one flight with a stop, or run the two separate ones, maybe consolidated for part of the season only. I'm sure TSC have their own way of doing it.

UK IT operators to the Mediterranean used to be experts at doing this.

Arrives LGW 11:20, departs (as TS493) 13:05, A321neo.

Vokes55

Now to be a A380 from 10/12

great news!

I hear the biometrics for domestic flights are off due to COVID as BA are asking for ID checks at the gate, like easyJet. Hence given they both accept driving licences, are we now allowing free access to domestic flights to entrants with zero passport checks? Cos Flight Connections doesn't take you via the UK BORDER check? Am I missing something here?

I have traveled on 4 domestic sectors in the last three months and haven’t been asked for any form of ID at the gate on any sector.

Did you have your face scanned at the entrance to security and at the gate though?

Gatwick doesn't have scanning in place at present as there are no international transit passengers through North Terminal - that's the trigger why you have to have this for UK domestics.

Skipness One Foxtrot

not that I am aware of which of course does not mean it didn’t happen

I suspect that scanning your face without your active participation would be (a) technically difficult and (b) of dubious legality.

Scoot seem to be planning to fly between Gatwick and Bangkok...briefly in late Dec 2021, and then properly 3x weekly from late March 2022

It is a Sin/Bkk routing and is on sale via their website.

Lets see if Scoot can do what Norwegian couldn't esp adding a notoriously low rent route (BKK).
Will need heavy promotion at UK end I would imagine for outbound ‘I thought Scoot was for washing dishes’
Singapore fares will need to be price conscious (which you’d expect Scoot will be) for a double drop when direct is available.
Major review sites don’t give this carrier great scores…
One to watch with interest.

Scoot seem to take a fairly cautious approach and have operated Berlin-Athens-Singapore for a while so I imagine they must know how double drops affect yields.

I flew them years ago from Sydney to Singapore and they were fine.

The prices look good. £600 premium economy seat return to Bangkok will do alright and the back end will be busy with families, Backpackers and students.

There is less competition now too. BA has gone seasonal to BKK and rumours it will drop it altogether.

davidjohnson6

This is very welcome news for LGW, especially given the recent spew of airline suspensions and downsizing of flights to the Far East. This will be the second recent attempt at LGW-SIN (albeit with the BKK stop), hopefully they will be able to succeed where Norwegian failed. I'm also wondering if BA will be watching this- the transfer of their BKK route from LHR to LGW has been flagged up several times, so it'll be interesting to see how/if they respond directly to Scoot at LGW, now that BA have signalled their intention that they remain committed to LGW. I'm also wondering (hopeful) that Scoot's entry to LGW might mark the beginning for other Asian carriers to take a look at LGW, now that travel is beginning to get back on its feet :) Certainly interesting times ahead for the airport!

I'm sure they'll get the bums on seats, but London to Bangkok is (pre-covid) one of the most competitive routes in the world with trashed yields to match. Not sure I'd be in a hurry to fly on a 329 seat 788 either. For comparison, Norwegian had 291 seats on their 788s, and TUI had 325 seats in an all economy short haul configuration for Summer pre-Covid.

A good addition for Gatwick though, I hope it works for them.

A few other dates for long haul restarts in the coming month or so:

13NOV: Punta Cana (TUI)
15NOV: Tampa (BA)
19NOV: Orlando (BA)
24NOV: Liberia (TUI)
25NOV: Puerto Vallarta (TUI)
09DEC: Doha, San Jose, Punta Cana (BA)
10DEC: Dubai (EK)
17DEC: Phuket (TUI)
18DEC: Goa (TUI)

Time to get South Terminal ready?

indeed, and they are

Good news! Very much looking forward to using the South Terminal again soon, and I’m sure that BA are looking forward to reinstating their operations there along with the airlines usually based here. Any indication as to when the terminal is (tentatively) planned to be reopened?

Why would you say that BA NEVER wanted to go back in to South in the first place

Scoot
 

A very positive announcement for Gatwick. With demand for holiday destinations recovering more quickly, hopefully Scoot can make a success of these routes from Gatwick.

When is the South Terminal likely to re-open, in time for the start of the summer schedules in March?

BA have their own check-in areas and Club / First lounges in the South Terminal - I presume they'd want these back open?

BA and South Terminal
 

Rutan16

If you're referring to the time pre 2017 airline move, then your point is understandable, as I remember from an LGW documentary showing BA's big investment into their North Terminal check in and bag drop zone. However, things have moved on quite a bit since then, and BA now have a very nice check in zone in the South Terminal that strikes me as being larger than their previous home in the North Terminal, along with their lounges which have been generally well received by passengers. Plus, their branding presence (at least pre-Covid) in the South Terminal made the terminal feel more "home" to them in a way that North never was, given the rise of EZY operations there. So I'm sure that BA (as well as passengers alike) are eagerly looking forward to the South reopening, and hopefully soon :)