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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!)

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

VS
 

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?

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

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).

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.

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.

China Airlines
 

I noticed something similar with China Airlines to TPE the other day, who have sadly left LGW for LHR. The board was still displaying the old CI70 flight number at 21.10, presumably this is because CI still hold (vacant) slots at LGW, despite now also having being granted permanent slots at LHR?

BA Euroflyer Gatwick to Grenoble loaded today, winter seasonal twice weekly. (Sat and Sun) from December 3rd.

BA mainline has also removed Heathrow to Orlando from sale next Summer. Looking like up to twice daily during the summer season
from Gatwick as pre-Covid.

Vectisman - is it definitely BA Euroflyer operating the flights, or still (for the time being) British Airways ?

I believe the flights are operated by Euroflyer but under BAs AOC until the Autumn. Similar to Level which operated or still operates under the AOC of Iberia.
The crews are part of Euroflyer except for those (mainly cabin crew) on loan from mainline at the moment.

A third daily Emirates flight to operate for October half term…777

copied from Travel weekly
Emirates will operate a third daily service between Gatwick and Dubai during October half term.

Utilising a wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft, the flight will depart Dubai at 2.40am and arrive in Gatwick at 7.10am. The return flight will depart Gatwick at 9.30am and arrive in Dubai at 7.35pm, local time.

The service will take place daily between October 15 and October 29th
The carrier said the additional frequency will “meet high demand for travel during the school mid-term break and offer customers travelling to/from London greater connectivity”.

It added the service will also “accommodate Emirates passengers affected by the capacity adjustments at London Heathrow”.

The carrier currently operates nine daily flights to London: a twice daily service to Gatwick, six daily flights to Heathrow and one daily service to Stansted.

I also believe Emirates have plans to reinstate the third Daily A380 service to Gatwick earlier than March 1st 2023 as was planned. December 2022 is the date now being mentioned.

Ops by B77W

Looking on EK website ..three daily flights are bookable from 1/12/22..all A380❤️…maybe to do with Football World Cup ?Fly Dubai go from DXB to DOH

Problems at Gatwick this morning? Lots of easyJet cancellations and the Wizz Vienna operated into Luton.

Wizz was a Sarajevo- Luton flight that diverted into Vienna, then onward to Luton.

One wonders in such situations why it is just one airline "picked on". Looking at the Gatwick board, the 13 Easyjet were some of their arrivals between 0700 and 0900, and most of their departures just between 0800 and 0900, presumably the returning aircraft. Meanwhile everyone else has operated pretty much to time.

It's the same when issues happen at Heathrow, BA do scads of cancellations, often including dropping the entire domestic operation, while other operators continue to provide their full timetable.

Thanks for the info, this on a day when they issued a press release saying everything was back to normal, timing dear boy!

Maybe they have more to lose with the subsequent disruption?
Also, is it fairer to ask BA to cancel say 0.3% of their schedule or Agean to cancel 30%?

It’s also probably due to rage fact that easyjet have several frequencies a day to most of the destinations affected so easier to rebook. BA less so. Also easyjet had most in inbounds early in the morning when ATC Cover owing to sickness was the issue. At the moment tomorrow is looking back to normal.
I agree unfortunate timing for LGW. However still a positive sign for the airport to be back in profit and no capacity caps after August.

BA add 3 weekly Las Vegas , and 6 weekly Vancouver from LGW for Summer ‘23.

Flights on sale via BA.com

British Airways
 

Resumption of flights to Las Vegas on 26th March 2023, three weekly (Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays)

New route to Vancouver commencing 19th May 2023 with six weekly flights (excluding Tuesdays)

With these and other additions and frequency increases announced for Summer 2023 I can see the BA Gatwick long haul fleet returning to its pre-covid strength of
15 based 777 aircraft.

Nice to see for sure. In terms of route development, what services do we think BA could operate from Gatwick in the next few years, either unserved by BA or routes that can successfully coexist alongside services from Heathrow. Also, with the issues Heathrow is experiencing with capacity, could we see more routes operating from Gatwick rather than Heathrow in the interim or permanently?