British Airways adds more Heathrow leisure routes – Olbia, Kos, Corfu – to the existing list

Heathrow airport makes a lot of how important its flights to emerging economies are, and how limited its slots are for this. So it would be logical to imagine that spare slots would be used for just this sort of flight. Heathrow is keen on making statements like: “The UK will fall behind in the global race if it cannot connect to growing economies.” And “Global air transport provides access for our key industries to established and emerging new markets, which will help deliver economic growth across the UK.” So one might expect that, if spare slots come up, they would immediately be used for these long haul destination, to emerging economies.  However, Heathrow will now be getting new British Airways flights to … guess where?  Olbia in Sardinia; Kos and Corfu in Greece and Split in Croatia from summer 2015. And these will use Airbus A319s and A320s. To be fair, it is moving its Las Palmas flights to Gatwick. Other purely holiday destinations Heathrow offers in the Med are Mykonos and Santorini, which started earlier this year. There are also Pisa and Porto. And the Heathrow destination map includes many, many more … Ibiza, Nice, Tunis, Malta, Malaga….
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Heathrow’s destination map (interactive) is at                                      http://www.heathrowairport.com/flight-information/route-map

European part of Heathrow destination map

British Airways adds more Heathrow leisure routes

More Mediterranean leisure routes are being added from Heathrow by British Airways next summer.The airline is introducing Olbia in Sardinia, Kos and Corfu in Greece and Split in Croatia to its network from May 1.

The new routes follow last week’s announcement that the airline will also start serving Seville, Las Palmas in Gran Canaria and Funchal in Madeira from Gatwick.

Weekend day-trip tickets and cheaper hand baggage-only fares starting at £39 each-way are being introduced

Flights to all four new destinations will be on Airbus A319s and A320s from Heathrow.

The airline is also installing new cabins in 95 of its Airbus short-haul aircraft, which includes leather seats and mood lighting.

BA strategy director Lynne Embleton said: “It’s great to be able to offer an increasing number of Mediterranean destinations for customers flying from Heathrow for that weekend break in the sun or for longer holidays.

“We know these new short-haul routes are going to prove very popular after launching services to Mykonos and Santorini earlier in the year.”

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2014/10/01/49559/british-airways-adds-more-heathrow-leisure-routes.html

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Heathrow says, in its publication  “Heathrow best placed for Britain ”  – June 2013

“The Global Race.   The UK will fall behind in the global race if it cannot connect to growing economies.”

and

“Keeping a successful hub in the UK means British passengers will have a greater choice of air links — particularly to long-haul emerging market destinations that are important for economic growth.”

and

“Global air transport provides access for our key industries to established and emerging new markets, which will help deliver economic growth across the UK.”

http://www.heathrowairport.com/static/HeathrowAboutUs/Downloads/PDF/best-placed-for-britain_LHR.pdf

 


 Heathrow’s new routes page

at http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/flights-and-holidays/flights/new-routes

states:

New routes [Just the Heathrow ones copied below].


Changes to our routes

 


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British Airways Adds London Gatwick – Seville / Las Palmas Service from late-March 2015

30 SEPT 2014


British Airways from 29 MAR 15 is introducing London Gatwick – Seville service, which sees Airbus A319 operating 5 weekly flights.

Also, the oneWorld member will transfer London Heathrow – Las Palmas service to London Gatwick, where it’ll operate 2 weekly flights.

http://airlineroute.net/2014/09/30/ba-svqlpa-s15/

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See earlier:

 

BA uses its new BMI slots at Heathrow, not for emerging economies, but largely leisure destinations. As usual.

27.6.2014BA got 42 daily Heathrow slots from taking over BMI. And it said very publicly, in March, that it would be using these to fly to the emerging economies – in  Asia, Africa and Latin America – which is part of the myth that the aviation industry is peddling at present. So what are the slots actually being used for?  One flight per day to  Seoul. The rest are domestic UK (Aberdeen Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester, Leeds Bradford), or Zagreb, Las Vegas, Barcelona, Marseilles, Phoenix, Zurich and Bologna – with more flights to some.  So that is where the money is.  So much for the allegedly desperate need for slots to fly to second tier Chinese cities. This really proves what a lot of misleading PR is being put out by BAA and the airlines at Heathrow.· British Airways returns to the Isle of Man
· New routes from London Heathrow to Seoul and Zagreb
· New routes from London Gatwick to Las Vegas and Barcelona
· Bologna and Marseille flights move from Gatwick to Heathrow
· Increased frequency on numerous routeshttps://www.airportwatch.org.uk/?p=2401.


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More BA routes from Heathrow …. to key business destinations …. Palma and Ibiza

17.1.2013Anyone reading the statements from Heathrow about the capacity crisis and how there is a need for more flights to the emerging markets might be puzzled by recent news from British Airways. Back in February 2012 Willie Walsh said he planned to expand IAG  into lucrative emerging markets, such as Latin America and he hoped to use the extra Heathrow take-off and landing-slots from BMI to accelerate growth into emerging markets. But BA has now announced that it is putting on new flights from Heathrow to Palma (Majorca) from March, and to Ibiza. These are in addition to Mexico and Alicante, as well as  Bologna and Marseilles announced earlier.  There are also new flights to Leeds Bradford (and a mention of links for business connnections) and a new flight to Chengdu in China, announced earlier, as well as Almaty (Kazakhstan), Dublin, and Seoul among others, where there is likely to be a business component.  It is hard to believe there is much business benefit from weekend flights to Alicante or Palma or Ibiza.https://www.airportwatch.org.uk/?p=749..Contrast this with Willie Walsh’s statement last year:

IAG’s Willie Walsh targets emerging markets

Willie Walsh’s plans to expand International Airlines Group (IAG) into lucrative emerging markets, such as Latin America, will dominate the carrier’s annual results this week as it announces a doubling of operating profits.

The group, owner of British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia, hopes to use the extra Heathrow take-off and landing-slots that will be gained through its proposed BMI takeover to accelerate growth into emerging markets.

……. and so on …. (Telegraph 25.2.2012) at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9105918/IAGs-Willie-Walsh-targets-emerging-markets.html

 

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