Yes was weather related

BA wise for w23

SJO, BGI and CPT all return

ACC replaces YVR

s24

YVR not returning with ACC remaining

increases in LAS and MCO frequency

LIM and YYZ not to return (these were pre covid routes)

BA SH w23

OPO, FUE, ALG and INN all return with DBV going year round

this change ins very noticeable as soon as ATC / weather issues are predicted or known about as you rightly say EZY take an axe to their third wave.

this sometimes turns out to be a good decision and sometimes it’s OTT if issues don’t manifest themselves as expected.

but being preemptive and canx say 20 departures early enough means circa 3,500 fewer pax to have to manage/decontrol etc if it all goes wrong late afternoon/evening and removing these flights adds to the operational resilience of the flights that are left.

Apologies if it’s been mentioned but Air Mauritius and Ethiopian are launching at LGW for w23

Running an airline would be easy if wasn't for those inconvenient passengers, wanting to go places.

Yep, guess who was stuck away from home for three days when the issue leading to the preemptive decision didn’t manifest itself as expected

[QUOTE=772;11505509]Apologies if it’s been mentioned but Air Mauritius and Ethiopian are launching at Gatwick

Apologies accepted.

Yes I can assure you that the majority of us on this thread are already aware of that as it's been mentioned and discussed several times in previous post's, including my own.

Both airline announcements we're made many months ago and were duly posted on this thread.

Air Mauritius commences 29 October 2023
Ethiopian Airlines commences 21 November 2023

But nice to know that your on top it with regards to recent airline announcements 🙂

aeroroutes.com is a recommended site 👍

BA Gatwick to Doha finishes on March 30th 2024
BA Gatwick to Vancouver returns April 2024 for a longer season 6 weekly. This was announced yesterday.
Kingston, Las Vegas and Orlando all see frequency increases for Summer 2024.

Porto and Algiers transfer from this October not next Summer and operate year round.

772
Vancouver is returning next summer.
https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230918-bans24inc

Accra also begins at Gatwick this winter and looks like to be year round at 3 weekly in addition to Heathrow which is daily.

With British Airways historically flying from LHR to DOH I've never seen the point of them operating LGW to DOH as well. Especially with Qatar Airways also operating LGW to DOH with upto twice daily flights.

There's enough capacity at LHR for summer 2024 with Qatar Airways offering upto eight daily flights along with a daily flight with British Airways.

Another LGW long haul destination with British Airways that's due to resume is Accra. Even though it has yet to start I can't see it being around for long.

It was a nightmare flying with BA through DOH connecting onto a QR flight. Having to queue at the transfer desk on the outbound for ages was just crazy. Took about 1.5hours earlier in the year. QR never an issue when both legs.

The Accra service may be around longer than you think. The new Ghana Airlines wants to fly to London. If they don’t get into LHR and have to go to LGW. BA May we’ll be asked to move all Accra to LGW too. We shall have to wait and see. Just my non expert opinion.

Didn't the govt of Ghana threaten to revoke BA's route authority unless they continued to serve LHR? They had intended to drop LHR-ACC entirely in favour of LGW.

Yes, but if Ghana Airlines doesn't get access to Heathrow the Ghanian government may not be happy about BA keeping their flights from Heathrow. Could be interesting diplomacy!

I think the reason for the Gatwick 3 weekly service is that BA wants to increase capacity on this route but doesn't wish to use another Heathrow slot and has spare slots at Gatwick. Could also be a testing of the water exercise. It has obviously been approved by the Ghanian authorities partly I expect because the Heathrow flights are also continuing. They are also probably looking ahead to their own airline being given permission to serve the route.

23rd October 2022. A date etched in my soul. A storm cell sitting over Gatwick for hours. I arrived at at 17:00 hrs to see pier 5 full of aircraft loaded with pax and and bags, jetties off, waiting to go. Crew rapidly running out of hours. Then the cancellations. Total carnage. Passengers off, planes towed to remote stands to allow inbounds a stand. Bags still on them. Thousands of offloaded pax waiting 5+ hours in baggage reclaim, taxiways blocked by aircraft awaiting a stand.

Offloaded baggage was nothing to do with me, but the "big" boss at the time asked me to go and talk to the poor passengers waiting for their bags, as I was closest. The subsequent 3 hrs of justified abuse was the catalyst to my decision to leave. I don't mind being called an "f.....g c...t" as it's probably true, but the spitting was the final straw.

Cancelling some of wave 3 helps, however it is usually too late for a lot of passengers who are en route/already checked bags in. When you suddenly get a list of 25+ flights that are cancelled, all the bags already checked-in have to be returned to baggage reclaim. I had barely enough staff to sort the outbound baggage, losing 3 or 4 to return cancelled flight baggage was a kick in the teeth.

200+ departures a day for U2 is fanciful at best, downright negligent in reality. U2 and LGW got greedy, writing cheques they couldn't cash.

I believe next year at Gatwick Easyjet are reducing the Gatwick based fleet. Three aircraft I have heard will be re-deployed to Birmingham to open the base there. Other older aircraft will be returned to
lessors or redeployed to other bases. This is due to both over optimistic scheduling this summer and the need to return leased slots to BA/IAG.

The LGW-ACC is curious and definitely a wait and see route as to what BA do with it medium term

I did the same last year but didn't need to go to transfer desk as it was BA/QR Codeshare so went straight through security to departure lounge without delay as I already had boarding pass for onward QR flight.

Exactly and that's why I mentioned it in my previous post.

We are all aware of the fact that the newly formed national airline for Ghana as in Ghana Airways are looking at operating to London with their fleet of three brand new B789s. An official announcement is due shortly. Whether they are able to obtain slots at LHR is another thing but I have no doubt that they will eventually gain slots ar LGW.

Is the reason for British Airways to resume LGW-ACC to increase capacity on the route without using valuable slots at LHR. Or has British Airways struck a deal with the Ghanaian authorities to operate LGW-ACC so that a potential Ghana Airways ACC-LGW route can operate without any objections regarding to any service to or from LHR.

I'm sure we will know in due course and I believe that it's going to be announced before the end of the year. Ghana Airways flying from Accra to London and I'm fairly certain that the London airport will be LGW rather than LHR.

Perhaps the above is the actual reason why British Airways are resuming LGW-ACC.

Regardless of all that it's great to see another long haul destination as well as another intercontinental country being added to the airports route portfolio.

Problems, again, at LGW...ATC and LVP...

Not sure what LVP is but not all airlines seem to be affected. BA has a couple off delays,
nothing excessive, but EasyJet more cancellations and delays. Perhaps owing to their much greater first wave out.