British Airways to double operations at Gatwick Airport
British Airways is planning to double its operations at Gatwick, instead of more at Heathrow. It is keen to compete against Heathrow. BA is understood to be planning to increase the number of aircraft based at Gatwick from 14 to between 24 and 28 in the next few years. Airlines are annoyed at the high level of landing charges, per passenger, at Heathrow as well as the problems of not having enough staff this summer. BA wants to grow (like all airlines – they have no Plan B) and intends that to be at Gatwick, for the time being. BA was among a number of airlines to decrease its presence at Gatwick, Britain’s second-busiest airport, during the pandemic. Arch-rival Virgin Atlantic moved its operations to Heathrow. BA returned to Gatwick last year with the launch of Euroflyer, a cut-price short-haul subsidiary that would operate independently in a similar vein to Cityflyer, which runs BA flights from London City Airport.
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British Airways to double operations at Gatwick Airport
Airline plans to increase planes based at Sussex site from 14 to as many as 28
By Oliver Gill, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (Telegraph)
27 November 2022
British Airways is planning to double its operations at Gatwick as a long-running row with Heathrow sours relations with bosses at Britain’s busiest airport.
The UK flag carrier is to increase flights from the Sussex airport instead of expanding operations at Heathrow.
BA is understood to be planning to increase the number of aircraft based at Gatwick from 14 to between 24 and 28 in the coming years.
The plans come amid discontentment among airlines operating out of Heathrow. The airport was forced to cap passenger numbers during the summer to prevent a repeat of the chaos that blighted many airports since the Easter holidays.
Heathrow bosses are also lobbying the aviation regulator to increase landing charges – fees that are passed on to customers.
One senior source said: “Our growth will be at Gatwick rather than Heathrow for now.”
BA was among a number of airlines to retreat from Gatwick, Britain’s second-busiest airport, during the pandemic. Arch-rival Virgin Atlantic moved its operations to Heathrow, turning its back on the base where Sir Richard Branson’s maiden flight took off in 1984.
BA returned to Gatwick last year with the launch of Euroflyer, a cut-price short-haul subsidiary that would operate independently in a similar vein to Cityflyer, which runs BA flights from London City Airport.
Euroflyer was BA’s plan to avoid racking up big losses running short-haul flights and included similar working practices to budget rivals, meaning some pilots would be paid less than those at EasyJet.
BA bosses, meanwhile, have clashed with Heathrow chief John Holland-Kaye both in public and behind closed doors.
Heathrow is waiting on a final decision by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on what it can charge airlines in take-off and landing fees.
Charges are set to fall from £30 per passenger currently to £26 next year under proposals put forward by the CAA.
Heathrow wants to increase the charges to £42 per passenger. Failure to acquiesce to such demands would have a detrimental impact on passengers because the airport would not have the money to invest in vital upgrades and maintenance, Mr Holland-Kaye said.
Airlines disagree. Luis Gallego, the chief executive BA parent IAG, has accused Heathrow of “using its dominant market position to enrich shareholders at the expense of travellers, airlines and the UK’s economy”.
It remains to be seen whether a rubber-stamping of the £26 charge would impact Heathrow’s plans to roll out baggage scanners that will negate the need for passengers to remove liquids and laptops, for instance.
After what sources conceded had been hiccups upon launch, demand for BA’s Euroflyer services is particularly strong with bookings for next year already performing strong, sources said.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/27/british-airways-double-operations-gatwick-airport/
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See earlier:
BA plan for new low cost “BA Lite” at Gatwick, for short-haul flights, abandoned
At the end of August British Airways announced that it hoped to start a new low-cost airline, called “BA Lite” to operate from Gatwick, and compete with Ryanair, EasyJet and Wizz. BA would therefore move short-haul flights back to Gatwick, after deciding to move them to Heathrow because of the pandemic. BA had consultations with trades unions – telling them that change was essential if it was to return to Gatwick. But the contracts for staff were less generous than before. Now the plan to create “BA Lite” has been scrapped, as agreement could not be reached with the pilots’ union, BALPA. The union says the benefits and protections its members would have under the new company are not good enough. So BA has shelved the plan and will now cut the short haul routes it already flies from Gatwick. The news may come as a blow for Gatwick as it looks to grow passengers numbers and bring its emergency runway into regular use to increase its capacity. The loss of BA and its routes means Gatwick has even less need for its costly, climate-wrecking, expansion plans to bring its standby runway into full use, by 2029.
Click here to view full story…
Gatwick in talks with lenders, after losing another £245 million in the first half of 2021
Gatwick says it made a loss of £245m in the first half of 2021, as passenger numbers collapsed to 569,000. It expects to have 9 million passengers by December, but that is lower than the 10 million in 2020. In 2019 it had 46.5 million. The airport is now in talks with its lenders to ease the terms of its loans, due to the losses. It lost £465.5 million in 2020. Due to its weak finances and continuing low demand for air travel, Gatwick has asked its lenders to agree to short-term waivers on its loans to avoid it defaulting. This was also done last year, and the same thing happened at Heathrow. Virgin Atlantic, one of Gatwick’s longest-standing airline customers, has ceased its operations at Gatwick for now, while British Airways has moved all of its short-haul flights to Heathrow, due to the low level of demand. However, BA said it will continue with at least long-haul operations from Gatwick. The airport said it had 779m of liquidity at the end of June, which it hopes would last it for the next 12 months, with no more staff being made redundant. It has cancelled or deferred more than £570m of capital spending that had been planned for 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Click here to view full story…
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