Out of interest how many A380 capable gates does Gatwick have? One or two?

One, Stand/Gate 558 on Pier 4.

Thank you.

I think and I could well be wrong ,gate 558 is the only one but I’m not totally sure ..the EK 11/12 in the morning is now a 777 till end of July so they won’t fight over it 😉..the QF is meant to depart at 09.55 .

Thanks Sean x

The answer to that is a definite no I'm told.

That's the only pier served A380 stand. However, 172, 234 and 235 are also A380 capable, albeit they're remote stands which means lots of buses back and forth for the passengers!

Has 110 been redeveloped I guess?

Not yet.

The extension to Pier 6 was put on hold during the covid 19 pandemic.

The area has been cleared, and preparation works had previously commenced in 2019, but this was also put on hold.

Preparation works started again earlier this year, with construction supposed to commence Q324 with a completion date set for 2026.

The extension will allow for contact stands fitted with airbridges for eight narrow body aircraft.

The associated taxiway alignments were undertaken after the A380 gate was moved from Gate 110 to Gate 558 in 2019.

There are upto date docking charts online, plus it's noticeable on Google Earth.

Correct it is the only pier served A380 stand at LGW. As the conversation was regarding A380 gate availability at LGW I omitted the remote stands that you have kindly mentioned. I was aware of stands 234 and 235 being A380 capable but I wasn't aware that stand 172 is as well.

I am hearing that the QANTAS charter was for the Plymouth Bretheren. They return on 30th April.

This would make the most sense. I have a friend at QF and this flight was discussed as happening soon.

Things don't appear to be going too well for Air Peace at LGW - allegations of 'operational sabotage' according to the following article:

https://www.naijanews.com/2024/04/12...-london-route/

This has been commented on above. To be honest the Air Peace CEO has an agenda and is always shouting off about something.

Thank you ..vectisman ..mystery solved x

Cathay Pacific
 

Is this regarding Cathay? Travel24 has previously mentioned in this thread that CX are planning to return to Gatwick from October this year, 5 weekly to start off with based on internal sources within the airport. Cathay Pacific did well at LGW following their return to the airport in 2016. I am absolutely sure that had it not been for Covid breaking out, Cathay would still be serving the route today, as it was one of the more successful of the newer long haul routes launched. LHR is now finally back up to 5 daily this summer, albeit with 3 77Ws and 2 A359s per day (versus the 5 daily 777-only operation pre-pandemic), although this is mostly due to the 777 retrofit programme, hence why seat capacity has reduced slightly with the 2 A350s. Hopefully they will return to LGW, especially with SQ arriving soon.

There's no plans at this time for CX to resume LGW operations I'm told, nor Dublin for what it's worth. 777 retrofit hasn't started as yet, it's more to do with crewing, there's still some 777 in storage yet to come out. LGW and DUB were 2 of the least profitable routes in Europe, having said that things change so who knows, but definitely can't see it happening this year, if at all!

Norse Atlantic has scrapped plans to fly from Gatwick to Bridgetown and Montego Bay during the Winter 2024/25 season

I too read that on aeroroutes.com yesterday Tuesday 16 April.

Norse had an opportunity in the Caribbean especially serving the likes of Barbados and Jamaica. But as usual the airline doesn't have a clue what it's doing.

I wonder what destinations they will choose as replacements?

In the last week Norse has just had another €20 million from investors.

It does make me wonder how long this airline will actually survive for.

In my opinion there's no real need for Norse Atlantic Airways, and it won't be a huge loss to the aviation industry if they eventually ceased operations. I'm sure those Boeing 787s plus the pilots and crew would be snapped up by other airlines considering the worldwide shortage.

ZAR (South African rand) has appeared as a payment currency on Norse's website.

I'd wager 100ZAR (i.e. about £5 :E ) that tomorrow's announcement is LGW-CPT, maybe 2 or 3 times a week.

And if they're really mad, they'll launch LGW-DUR at the same time to try and top and tail the Garden Route.

Air Peace CEO agenda
 

Did Air Peace actually ever apply for any slots at any London airport, and have the slots they're currently using at Gatwick actually been awarded to them? I believe these slots are in fact Norse's slots Air Peace doesn't have any slots anywhere in the UK. Also, the Gatwick slots they're currently using seem to be available to them only until the end of August. This is until when they seem to have filed their Gatwick-Lagos schedule according to aeroroutes. It also tallies with Air Peace planning to operate Gatwick-Lagos six times a week entirely with their own metal from 1 June till 31 August as Norse is planning to go double-daily on Gatwick--JFK from June and therefore probably need the aircraft currently operating Gatwick-Lagos for Air Peace four times a week under an ACMI contract for two months (till May-end). And Norse is planning to launch a new, three-times-weekly Gatwick - Las Vegas service starting on 1 September. Hence, they'll need those slots currently used by / for Air Peace themselves, tallying with the end of Air Peace's six-times-weekly Gatwick-Lagos 777 service on 31 August.

Come September, expect the Air Peace CEO to create a huge fuss about how the treacherous, nasty UK government in cahoots with a conspiracy of foreign airlines wanting to see him fail has mugged him of his non-existent Gatwick slots.

Norse has confirmed its launching a new route from Gatwick to Cape Town:



Like Virgin Atlantic, the inbound flight to London is a day flight.

Quote:

---

Outbound flights depart London Gatwick at 20.00 and land in Cape Town at 0930 the following morning. Inbound flights depart Cape Town at 11.45 and arrive at London Gatwick at 21.35 the same day.

---

BA is also reinstating an IAG link between Gatwick & Dublin from 20 May, as Emerald Airlines will operate a flight for BA up to twice daily..

This is being sold as a BA flight, subcontracted to Emerald Airlines, rather than an EI codeshare.

Struggle to see the benefit of this, purely other than the stronger brand of BA in the UK / Gatwick area. Otherwise, as an IAG airline, why couldn't Aer Lingus just operate it under their own brand with Emerald Airlines and with a BA codeshare. ???

Exactly, I was going to mention the same thing. Very strange scenario to be honest and something which I don't understand.

Are Lingus needed to use its own aircraft to ensure full utilisation of their LHR slots that were at risk if not fully used.
The Emerald/BA Dublin flights actually connect well to BA long haul. Do you really think they would not have examined the economics before operating the LGW to Dublin the route?

I had completely overlooked the LHR slot situation.

I rest my case as having read your message I completely understand the reasons behind it.

I wouldn't think too deeply about it. They haven't. The reason why this is Emerald for BA (and not Aer Lingus) is that it's a last minute operation cobbled together to cover some BA Gatwick slots. There's nothing strategic about it whatsoever, and if this was part of some grand master plan as to how to serve hubs, this service would have been unveiled as an Aer Lingus franchise route when Aer Lingus itself withdrew, with whatever forward bookings between Dublin and Gatwick they had transferred to the new ATR service. As it is, all of those customers were re-routed and now they're starting a new twice-daily service at a month's lead time with no advance bookings.

​​​​​​​

This comment makes no sense.

No one is talking about Aer Lingus using its own aircraft to LHR. We're talking about EI Regional / Emerald Airlines branded planes, clearly with spare availability/capacity for running flights for BA in EI branding. It could have simply been EI Regional operating these flights with a BA codeshare. That's the point we're saying. Why this route had to be any different to others where this happens, we were not sure.

However, Flightrider's comment probably answers it better. So technically confirmed as a slot sitter route, where its pretty cheap to operate and on a cheaper aircraft within the IAG fleet, as well having inside figures of some proven route demand. Presumably, LGW say that BA must use their own flight code as the main operator to satisfy the slot use requirements, regardless of being an IAG airline?

Aer Lingus would have no shortage of takers if they needed to lease some LHR slots out for a few seasons, there's no need to drop LGW for that surely? LGW-DUB with BA was relatively weak, a B737-500 route from memory, dropped when they were retired. Longevity would be a BA painted ATR, but I suspect not.

It is ACL not London Gatwick that are responsible for slot use.

There is a degree of historical irony in that suggestion, given that at one time, BA liveried ATRs of CityFlyer Express provided the only Gatwick-Dublin service. Ryanair then came along (1995) and Aer Lingus returned again. The BA service went ATR > RJ100 > 737 > dropped.

Maybe BA Euroflyer may end up with LGW to Dublin in the long term. Who knows!?

Emerald aren’t an IAG carrier they are an independent business with franchise’s for Aer Lingus and Aer Lingus UK.
They have an ex Indonesian ATR due and they could easily leave that one Euro white and anonymous I suppose.

Not at all. Just lease the slots for a nominal sum and make sure that the carrier operates 80% is enough to satisfy ACL and BA

Being reported elsewhere that China Eastern are adding a 2nd daily LGW-PVG for the summer peak, so 1x B77W LHR-PVG and 2x B77W out of Gatters. The 2nd daily LHR A332 seems to have been winter only, so no summer slots and a move to LGW it seems.

Does anyone have an further information as regards to the above post?

Air Iveria have apparently obtained slots at LGW for 3 weekly flight's. Flights were supposed to commence on the 13 May 2024. Air Iveria are no longer listed on the London Gatwick Wikipedia page.

With no actual website and no further information made available since it was originally announced I wonder if it will actually happen.

According to sources online Air Iveria is supposed to be the new national carrier for Georgia 🇬🇪.

Georgia 🇬🇪 has had a lot of coverage in the mainstream press and travel media over the last few months and the destination has a lot to offer.

Hopefully this planned new route from Tbilisi to London Gatwick actually goes ahead at some point in the future.

Iveria btw is the ancient name for Georgia 🇬🇪

Whilst the country and city of Tbilisi actually looks stunning and has a mass of history. Much most and all of the current aviation growth is premised on Russian sanction busting , just saying.

Their website hasn’t been updated since this time last year. https://airiveria.com/en

I’m not optimistic.

Who's next (cont.)
 

With Indigo having finally placed their long-rumoured widebody order for 30 A350-900s (plus a further 70 options) and following on from pre-Covid era media comments, London is likely to be among the first long-haul destinations the airline could (and IMHO very likely would) serve with a dedicated widebody fleet direct from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, given the extremely tight slot situation at Heathrow and that as an LCC (of sorts) with a track record of profitability and prudent management of its finances Indigo IMO is unlikely to shell out crazy sums for Heathrow slots it would struggle to recoup given the type of passenger it would most likely attract as well as Heathrow's high airport user charges (reportedly up to twice Gatwick's), this should make Gatwick Indigo's prime target (in preference to Stansted provided Gatwick has slots that are workable for the airline) re the London area airport from which to launch direct flights to Delhi / Mumbai / Bangalore. However, this won't be an imminent prospect as the first of the airline's just ordered A350s are not due to arrive until 2027.

Interestingly, Norse UK's head of route planning has in a recent media interview stated that the airline's just announced Gatwick - Cape Town winter seasonal route was something his team was looking at for a long time, along with other potential (presumably winter seasonal as well) routes to other African destinations from Gatwick in Kenya and Tanzania. If anything concrete comes of this, among the routes most suited to a fly Norse operation in these countries from Gatwick are Mombasa and Zanzibar IMO. (In this connection, I still vaguely recall African Safari Airways / ASA, which I believe was a Swiss-owned, Kenyan-based charter airline doing Gatwick-Mombasa direct during the winter in the 1990s and possibly the early noughties with its own dedicated A310s featuring a zebra-striped tail fin.) Further related to this, could we potentially see BA [re]launch flights from Gatwick to Entebbe and Dar Es Salaam and potentially to Arusha / Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar (the latter perhaps as a competitive / retaliatory response to Norse should Norse decide to launch Zanzibar), maybe, Entebbe and Dar Es Salaam year-round and Arusha and / or Zanzibar winter seasonally?

Reverting to the topic of additional winter seasonal routes Norse could serve from Gatwick, both Gatwick-Durban and Gatwick-Colombo spring to mind.

At the opposite end of the scale, i.e., who is leaving Gatwick rather than coming to Gatwick, Business Traveller has just reported that Lufthansa has removed Gatwick-Frankfurt from its GDS inventory as of 1 July 2024. This doesn't surprise me at all given how many strikes either this airline or their main base and primary global hub at Frankfurt has had ever since the route's relaunch, with (in my past experience) crappy staff attitudes to match, especially when seated at the back of the plane which among all the big airlines I travelled with (incl. BA, Emirates, KLM and Air France) puts Lufthansa truly in a class of its own (and I'm not saying this in a positive sense). Taking all of these factors together, who in their right mind would still want to fly Lufthansa? I'm sure that when this is confirmed and the airline will be asked to give a reason for pulling its Gatwick-Frankfurt route, it'll do what it has always done "best": blame the Gulf carriers for all its (self-inflicted) woes (like it recently blamed the Gulf carriers for having cut the number of Far Eastern destinations it supposedly still serves from 14 pre-pandemic to only four post-pandemic). Let's hope they'll give the daily morning pair of Gatwick slots to their subsidiary Swiss to allow it to go double daily on their recently launched Gatwick-Zurich route to make it a proper feeder for their Zurich hub. I personally consider Swiss a.much better airline than Lufthansa and would expect them to succeed where Lufthansa failed provided it can secure the slots at Gatwick to make the Zurich route an efficient feeder for its global connections radiating from Zurich. Anyway, there will be no shortage of takers for the slots Lufthansa will be vacating at Gatwick.