There is actually a bit of a sea-change hidden within this announcement, I think. Of late, the mantra has been very much that whatever happens at Gatwick must not be allowed to impact on Heathrow - the only really duplicate routes have been domestics (predominantly for long-haul leisure feed) and Amsterdam (much the same). Adding Berlin and Madrid at Gatwick together with also continuing to serve some of the routes at Heathrow looks to be a relaxation of that policy if indeed it hasn't been taken out completely.

Interesting point of view, actually. MAD is obviously an IAG hub and BER seems to be a strong point of sale for BA - the E-190s have been shuttled through on the way to STN/MAN/SOU over the years. ATH in the summer is a no-brainer and was one of the first "long" routes for LCC's back in the day. Quite a number of 'leisure' flights remain at Heathrow, so that might be playing into the mix too.

In any case it looks like a decent summer schedule and one which should be able to stand on its own two feet - the destinations are mainly O&D, as you say.

Yes I agree a decent initial schedule. Don't forget these routes are the initial network for next Summer. Over the next two or three years, I am sure it will expand and diversify some more.
It will be interesting how the Winter schedule will look. Maybe more city breaks, ski flights etc... and some charters. However, with contracts in place that
allow for the greater seasonality at Gatwick the offering should be more sustainable.
I am surprised at the omission of Edinburgh. It carried a few hundred thousand per year pre-covid and could still support twice daily frequency now.
Likewise, I am sure Gatwick -Jersey in addition to the Heathrow service could do well as a summer seasonal.
However, I expect initial fleet size has meant some routes may have to wait. There may be more more domestics further down the line as demand recovers. The original plan was to increase base size by 3 aircraft a year for several years after 2022.
As the feet expands there may be more scope for route additions.
It would be a plus if the the new subsidiary is permitted to develop routes more independently of the mainline operation. Interesting times.

2022 vs 2019
 

Agreed with the above comments that a lot of the 'new' short haul network essentially mirrors that of pre-covid, albeit with some nice additions like BER, ATH and MXP. How does the new network compare to pre-2019 in terms of based aircraft and routes? The noticeable route changes I see so far are that JER no longer features as does FCO, which is a shame, as this had been a route long served by BA at LGW, although I suppose VY are taking it over while BA consolidates this route to LHR. However, I note that it (FCO) is still featured on BA's timetable to/from LGW.

I’ll predict ATH will be a one season wonder ex LGW.

What's BA's fattest LH route at LGW year round?

So the route is not even on sale 24 hours yet and you are predicting failure. Perhaps it's in the waiting room to move back to Lhr!

British Airways will reinstate Gatwick to New York next summer, initially as a Summer Seasonal. Gatwick to Orlando has also been been made twice daily from Gatwick for next Summer. If the
Heathrow Summer flight continues that will be 3 daily London to Orlando next Summer. However the thrice weekly summer seasonal Gatwick to Las Vegas I believe has been removed.
At the moment Summer 2022 is looking like BA Long Haul at Gatwick will need 12 based 777. This compares with 15 in Summer 2019. Still some way to go but a steady recovery from 2020 and 2021.

True Blue, There will always be those who are reluctant to accept that BA and other airlines can be successful at Gatwick. I believe that after the pandemic and Heathrow determined
to raise charges, Gatwick will do quite well for itself in the next few years. Yes, Heathrow yields may be higher but that means higher fares too! We shall just have to wait and see.
I am pleased that BA (in all its forms) will have a meaningful presence back at Gatwick next Summer. Probably at least 12 based 777 and 18 short haul Airbus aircraft with more to come in future years.

I flew LGW-ATH on BA something like 30 years ago and came back to LHR. Why did they drop they route?

Brilliant news. I’m so pleased to see a considerable BA presence returning to Gatwick, both long and short haul. It will be great to see the South Terminal back in action too

Balance sheets are gutted and debt is growning alarmingly, and no one knows what the post COVID world will look like, anyone who says they do is lying. So the magic dartboard of route planning will be deployed once more, some will hit, some will miss. Until we get a view on business travel bounceback the LHR/LGW split will be less clear cut than before. It also astonishes me that EDI is missing off the list, and it's hard to suggest profits are so fat at LGW that BA staff had to take yet another kick over wages. There'll be 1-2 years of post COVID settling in before the new world is bedded in and we'll know what works where. But LGW is like LHR in that their balance sheet is in tatters, so they can't afford to cut user charges by much, if at all.

Because LGW-ATH cannibalised LHR-ATH, the same for many duplicated routes like JFK, MIA. Latterly only a few like GLA/EDI/AMS and JFK/LAS/YYZ operated over both, with LGW the overspill for the long haul trio there.

BA using the 380 from LGW wouldn’t make sense. Especially from an IROPs point of view

Random and probably wrong thought but could the lack of domestics and poor times on some other routes be lining up for some kind of deal with Easyjet - either partnership or buy out. Competition concerns are reduced if they are not competing already on those domestic routes and if they have to give up slots on the other competing routes they give up the unattractive ones like ALC-LGW at 2:30am.

Random indeed. I can see no connection or short term likelihood.

Easyjet has been rumoured to be fancied by several groups. The synergies between BA and Easy would be huge.

BA and Easy also recently agreed the slot leasing deal too rather than let Wizz or Ryanair.

I very much doubt any move towards an acquisition. The regulators for one would have a field day! The primary reason for the slot leasing deal is that both airlines have an interest in keeping Ryanair and Wizzair from expanding at Gatwick. As the BA short haul and probably the long haul fleet expands the slots will be returned.

Until "Easyjet Regional" was spun off :rolleyes:

I think the historic BA thinking that LHR=Business and LGW=Bucket and Spade is consigned to the pages of history. It’s apparent now that a lot of leisure routes can be just as profitable as a business route, especially when business travel demand is reduced.

There is already a lot of overlap between LHR and LCY on many routes. Since it looks like LGW will be initially at least run by LCY management, they will be well aware that high demand routes running from 2 or 3 of the BA London airports should be able to co-exist without being detrimental to each other.

Looks like Amsterdam, Berlin, Faro, Glasgow, Ibiza, Malaga, Milan, Nice, Palma and Santorini will be served from all 3 airports. With many other cities being served from 2 of the 3. (I note Milan is split across LIN (LCY/LHR) and MXP (LGW/LHR))

Athens and to a lesser extent Milan (ex-LTN but Wizzair base and previously applied for slots MXP-LGW) are just BA dumping low cost capacity into Wizzair markets. I’d imagine they’ll survive as long as Wizzair keeps the routes open.

I’d be interested to see if BA start LGW-BKK. They’ve just canned LHR-BKK for Summer 22. Now Scoot have entered the market it would be not unlike BA to try to squeeze out low cost competition. They’d also be able to use the moving of low yielding O&D long haul routes as pawns in their fees dispute with Heathrow.

BA Euroflyer
 

To get an idea of how the planned 18 aircraft will be utilised I've had a quick look through the schedule for the 2nd week of July. Appears to be the following:

Alicante - 12 weekly
Amsterdam - 16 weekly
Antalya - 7 weekly
Athens - 5 weekly
Bari - 6 weekly
Berlin - 7 weekly
Bordeaux - 13 weekly
Cagliari - 7 weekly
Catania - 6 weekly
Dalaman - 9 weekly
Dubrovnik - 7 weekly
Faro - 13 weekly
Glasgow - 7 weekly (LHR W pattern)
Heraklion - 3 weekly
Ibiza - 9 weekly
Kos - 2 weekly
Lanzarote - 6 weekly
Larnaca - 2 weekly
Las Palmas - 2 weekly
Madrid - 7 weekly
Mahon - 6 weekly
Malaga - 14 weekly
Malta - 8 weekly
Manchester - 7 weekly (LHR W pattern)
Marrakech - 7 weekly
Milan Malpensa - 7 weekly
Nice - 15 weekly
Palma - 6 weekly
Paphos - 7 weekly
Rhodes - 1 weekly
Santorini - 4 weekly
Seville - 6 weekly
Tenerife - 8 weekly
Thessaloniki - 4 weekly
Turin - 6 weekly
Venice - 8 weekly
Verona - 7 weekly

Great work, adfly! You wouldn't know if Tirana is staying at Heathrow do you?

It is indeed, double daily

Thanks mariofly12.

I believe that the main runway is to be resurfaced in 2022, does anybody know when this is to commence?

1st flight of SkyAlps/Luxwing to Bolzano on 15-Dec was cancelled. Flights on 18-Dec, and 22-Dec have also been cancelled. 1st flight seems to be on sale for 25-Dec which is perhaps dubious... 29-Dec seems like a more definite date for a flight to happen. I'm wondering if ticket sales have been a little disappointing.

Update - SkyAlps say there has been some misunderstanding with the "UK Aviation Office", presumably the CAA, and UK flights are not currently permitted. I wonder what this could be (or if it is BS !), if flights with a Malta/EU-based carrier from Bolzano in Italy to Brussels, Dusseldorf and Rotterdam have already started. Selling package holidays without posting a bond to the CAA ?

BA and LGW-BKK
 

So am I. Perhaps the decision to move BKK from LHR to LGW will largely depend on how successful Scoot is on the same route that they've just launched. LHR-BKK is pretty well covered with Eva and Thai year-round vs BA's now seasonal service. I reckon we will find out more once Scoot reinstate LGW again for the summer season and whether or not the route is working well for them, in which case BA may well be tempted to enter LGW with their own service to BKK.

Emirates increases Gatwick to Dubai to twice daily A380 from March 27th 2022. Hopefully the third daily service will be reinstated before
the end of 2022.

BKK has been a 3-class 777 for many years at Heathrow, leading to speculation its a fairly low yield route for them. Certainly the rate of op-ups from World Traveller Plus, the speed with which they dropped much of their Asian network and the slow return adds to this idea. The dense LGW 777s would probably be a decent fit for the route. On the other hand Thailand is taking a cautious approach to foreign visitors. So if it was marginal for BA in 2019 I can see why it might struggle now.

So Wizzair now has about 12 new routes on sale on their site now from Lgw.

I wonder if the fact that Wizzair has just gained another 15 daily slot pairs at Gatwick for Summer 2022(Bought from Norwegian) will further influence the development
of Euroflyer at Gatwick. BA ,and indeed Easyjet for that matter, will not want then to become too established. Hence the BA and easyjet slot lease deal for Summer 2022.
I can see BA responding by continuing to expand the Gatwick short haul fleet and using those slots. Also some rumours that Bangkok could be a BA long haul Gatwick route in the medium to long term.
It has been cancelled from Heathrow until at least next October. It is a lower yield mainly point to point route, maybe better suited to Gatwick. I expect they will be seeing how the new Scoot Gatwick to Bangkok route works out.
Of course everything depending on the public health situation.
Wizzair just announced 14 new routes to and from London Gatwick for Summer 2022. Some with new based aircraft others from overseas bases.
Obviously keen to use all those newly acquired slots. Be interesting how BA and easyjet respond.
On the plus side South Terminal will definitely need to be operation to cope with increased demand.
IAG airlines will want to be back in their South Terminal home as will others.
Rumours say plans are underway for a staggered re-opening in 2022.

BKK would be an interesting move for BA with the "densified" 777s at Gatwick, if indeed they have crew rest to facilitate it.

South Terminal re-opening will be a genuine logistical challenge. With very limited parts of the building open, it's already clear if you spend more than about 10 minutes in there that the rat population has firmly taken up residence. I shudder to think how many systems and baggage belt failures that they'll see upon re-opening given everything that must be being nibbled and chewed on a daily basis.

I am certain it is a challenge they will have the capacity to meet. they will need the terminal next Summer. I believe plans are in hand
As I said it would be a gradual re-opening. There will be a full maintenance programme too.

So from next Summer Wizz will have these routes operating from Gatwick:

Austria
Vienna - Daily *
Bulgaria
Sofia - Daily (3x Daily @LTN)
Cyprus
Larnaca - Daily (Daily @LTN)
Greece
Athens - Daily *
Chania (Crete) - 4x Weekly
Mykonos - 4x Weekly
Hungary
Budapest - Daily (3x Daily @LTN)
Israel
Tel Aviv - Daily (5x Weekly @LTN)
Italy
Bari - 2x Weekly *
Catania (Sicily) - 3x Weekly *
Milan MXP - Daily *
Naples - 4x Weekly *
Rome FCO - Daily *
Montenegro
Podgorica - 4x Weekly
Poland
Krakow - Daily (2x Daily @LTN)
Portugal
Faro - Daily *
Madeira - 2x Weekly
Romania
Bucharest OTP - Daily (3x Daily @LTN & 3x Weekly @SEN)
Spain
Malaga - 2x Daily (Daily @LTN)
Lanzorote - 3x Weekly *
Palma de Mallorca - Daily (Daily @LTN)
Tenerife - 5x Weekly (5x Weekly @LTN)

* = Routes moved from Luton

Don't think SEN was ever daily and looking at the timing I would bet it will operate from LGW!

I stand corrected, Southend is scheduled for Three weekly flights to Bucharest next summer, operating on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The flight times are near identical to Gatwick, operating within about 15-20 mins of each other.

Sorry for the random question but does anyone remember, maybe 20 years ago now, a staff car park that was located on the perimeter road at the 26L end of the runway right under the approach? Or am I miss remembering?

BA long haul at LGW post 777 retirements
 

Happy new year to you all- I hope the year ahead will be a positive one for all at LGW as it continues to recover :)

Got a question RE. BA long haul at LGW. To my knowledge, BA haven't publicly decided what will eventually replace the LGW-based 772s. These have of course recently been refurbished and are expected to stay on for quite some time yet. However, there will come a point where these will need replacing (whether with a new order or LHR hand-me-downs is anyone's guess at the moment). What does everyone think? Perhaps BA will standardise the LHR fleet with a mix of 787-9/10 and Airbus A350-1000, A380, reconfigure the 777Ws to match the LGW-spec and send them to Gatwick as more 787s/A350s are delivered? Or could we see a new order of entirely A350-900s or 787-10s destined for LGW? My guess is BA would prefer to standardise their LGW long haul ops with just one aircraft (just as currently with the 772s). Will be interesting to see what they decide, now that they've committed to staying (and hopefully growing!) at LGW.