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British Airways finalises Summer 2018 routes from Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol

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British Airways has now confirmed the timings for its Summer 2018 schedules from Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham.

Very little is changed from last year, with no new routes added.  BA has focused on increasing frequencies instead.  I have marked the new flights in the list below.

Manchester and Bristol services are remarkably similar with services increased on some routes.  Birmingham has seen more drastic change – the Ibiza route is dropped and the timings on many other flights have been changed sharply.

British Airways BA London City Airport

The cancellation of Birmingham to Ibiza is a recent decision.  From an email I received yesterday from a reader, passengers who had already booked have been moved to Manchester departures and not yet notified.

These will be two class flights so Club Europe is an option.  That said, the Embraer aircraft used are 2 x 2 seating throughout so the only difference will be lounge access and a free meal.

The flights are available for cash and Avios booking at ba.com.  The flights marked ‘new’ (not ‘new time’) should show decent Avios availability. The ones which ran last year had already been carried over into the timetable and have been bookable for some time, so good seats may have gone.

These services generally start in late May and run until either the end of September or end of October depending on route.

Here’s the timetable:

Manchester – Alicante

  • Outbound 05.50 – 09.40 Saturday
  • Inbound 10.25 – 12.20 Saturday

Manchester – London City

  • Outbound 19.55 – 20.55 Sundays
  • Inbound 19.40 – 20.40 Thursday

Manchester – Ibiza 

  • Outbound 21.25 – 01.15 +1  Thursday
  • Outbound 20.25 – 00.15 +1  Friday (NEW)
  • Outbound 19.30 – 23.20 Saturday
  • Outbound 12.50 – 16.40 Sunday
  • Outbound 14.45 – 18.35 Sunday (NEW)
  • Inbound 01.55 – 03.40 Friday
  • Inbound 00.55 – 02.40 Saturday (NEW)
  • Inbound 10.45 – 12.30 Saturday (NEW)
  • Inbound 00.05 – 01.50 Sundays
  • Inbound 17.25 – 19.10 Sundays

Manchester – Malaga

  • Outbound 05.40 – 09.40 Friday
  • Outbound 06.00 – 10.00 Saturday (NEW)
  • Inbound 10.20 – 12.30 Friday
  • Inbound 10.45 – 12.50 Saturday (NEW)

Manchester – Mykonos 

  • Outbound 14.15 – 20.15  Saturday (CHANGED DAY)
  • Inbound 21.00 – 23.10  Saturday (CHANGED DAY)

Manchester – Palma 

  • Outbound 13.15 – 17.00 Friday (NEW)
  • Outbound 05.55 – 09.40 Sunday
  • Inbound 17.55 – 19.40 Friday (NEW)
  • Inbound 10.20 –  12.10 Sunday

Manchester – Nice

  • Outbound 13.15 – 16.35 Saturday
  • Inbound 17.20 – 18.45 Saturday

Birmingham – Florence

  • Outbound 06.00 – 09.20 Saturday (NEW TIME)
  • Inbound 10.05 – 11.30 Saturday (NEW TIME)

Birmingham – Malaga

  • Outbound 19.05 – 23.00  Saturday  (NEW TIME)
  • Inbound 23.50 – 01.45 +1 Saturday  (NEW TIME)

Birmingham – Palma 

  • Outbound 12.20 – 15.50 Saturday  (NEW TIME)
  • Outbound 08.15 – 11.45 Sunday  (NEW)
  • Inbound 01.55 – 03.30 Saturday  (NEW)
  • Inbound 16.45 – 18.20 Saturday  (NEW TIME)

Bristol – Florence

  • Outbound 13.10 – 16.25 Saturday
  • Inbound 11.05 – 12.25 Saturday

Bristol – Ibiza

  • Outbound 19.45 – 23.10 Saturday
  • Inbound 23.55 – 01.20 +1  Saturday

Bristol – Malaga 

  • Outbound 12.45 – 16.25  Saturday  (NEW TIME)
  • Outbound 06.25 – 10.05  Sunday  (NEW)
  • Inbound 01.05 – 02.45  Saturday  (NEW)
  • Inbound 17.15 – 19.00 Saturday  (NEW TIME)

Bristol – Palma

  • Outbound 06.15 – 09.40 Saturday  (NEW TIME)
  • Inbound 10.25 – 11.55  Saturday  (NEW TIME)

These times often don’t match up between inbound and outbound flights because the aircraft are switching between airports.

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Comments (29)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Erico1875 says:
    5 Dec5 December 06:06

    So they have binned Edinburgh to Palma?

    • Rob says:
      5 Dec5 December 07:45

      Not sure. The timetable released last week just covered these 3 cities.

    • Sandra says:
      5 Dec5 December 10:03

      They better not! I’m booked on it!

    • Sandra says:
      5 Dec5 December 10:51

      Not the one I’m booked on. Used 2-4-1, have paid for seats, and car park reserved so won’t be a happy person if it is cancelled as many arrangements made in Mallorca for that week.

    • Sandra says:
      5 Dec5 December 16:49

      Tried to make a dummy booking. Still available so panic over for now.

  • Worzel says:
    5 Dec5 December 06:08

    We did BRS-IBZ-BRS in CE this year- had to burn or lose a 2-4-1.

    Not really worth doing CE-yes we got lounge access at BRS but not at IBZ. And even then, lounge access was initially questioned at BRS.

    Flight times new also for this route.

  • PGW says:
    5 Dec5 December 06:25

    I did BHX-FLR earlier this year getting to BHX by train for the evening departure. The problem then was that the flight was slightly delayed which made for a very late and inconvenient arrival into FLR. This new time allows an early arrival but negates the possibility of a same day rail connection.

    In general these services are to be welcomed but some of the flight timings are far from ideal.

    • Anna says:
      5 Dec5 December 07:35

      The times are awful but similar to LCCs out of MAN. The exception is Nice for where i’ve bagged 4 x RFS for May half term (cash price would have been £1300), which had civilised departure times!

      • Anna says:
        5 Dec5 December 07:38

        These routes will be a Godsend for us as long as BA don’t decide to pull them as we are only 45 mins from MAN. LCCs do the job but are annoying in that they charge for luggage and generally don’t accept Amex (though apparently Ryanair does now, which I must investigate!)

        • RM84 says:
          5 Dec5 December 08:58

          I booked Ryanair flights last night and can confirm they are now accepting Amex. (For a small charge of course – I think it was 1.5 or 2%). It’s helped us towards a BA 241 anyway.

        • Tom says:
          5 Dec5 December 09:38

          Manchester also isn’t too bad here from Leeds, especially when you get the early flights and therefore the M62 is more reasonable to drive along. I’m not wedded to flying out of LBA even though it’s only 10mins in a taxi from my house I’d rather use a RFS for the like of Mykonos, Palma et al and then LBA for connecting into long haul through T5 or cheap weekends away in Dublin etc.

  • Rich says:
    5 Dec5 December 07:09

    Rob – I think the Bristol-Malaga flight times you’ve shown are wrong?

    • Rob says:
      5 Dec5 December 07:48

      No, they are 100% correct (based on 9-16 June sample dates). The Sunday plane flies back elsewhere, not to Bristol.

      • Sam G says:
        5 Dec5 December 11:22

        The flights originate to/from from London City via Malaga – hence the strange flight times. The plane leaves there Friday night and goes back on Sunday

  • Keith says:
    5 Dec5 December 08:08

    BA routes from Manchester are always welcome in my opinion as a resident of the city. I remember back in the day when BA had the whole of T3. When they launched these routes last year I moving my flights from a LCY departure to be direct to Malaga. There were 3 of us in CE on the way back and that was the first week in August plus it’s 80 tier points each way. I just pray they’ll bring back more routes direct from Manchester so the app would stop telling me my next holiday is to London.

  • Tom says:
    5 Dec5 December 09:25

    I booked 3 CE flights to Mykonos a while ago….also booked our accommodation through Air BNB, and then……BA changed the day we fly on (was Fri-Fri, now Sat-Sat)!

    • the real harry1 says:
      5 Dec5 December 09:44

      if you can find flights on Fri-Fri with another carrier that are more convenient, you are entitled to be re-routed for free

      • Tom says:
        5 Dec5 December 10:26

        That was going to be my back up but fortunately the Air BNB owner has been able to move the booking, fortunately!

      • Callum says:
        6 Dec6 December 00:51

        Are you sure? I’ve not looked into this for over a year but I’m fairly sure that was never the case before? Has a court case clarified that?

      • Callum says:
        6 Dec6 December 06:44

        Are you sure? I’ve not looked into this for over a year but I’m fairly sure that was never the case before. Has a court case clarified that?

  • Pangolin says:
    5 Dec5 December 10:27

    Rob, is there some kind of protocol which states that any mention of Brum/BHX must involve posting that old picture of the Bull Ring?

    • Pangolin says:
      5 Dec5 December 10:29

      Having said that, I see that you’re even less kind to MAN!

      I think that only Cruz himself has a dimmer view of the regional airports 😀

    • Leo says:
      5 Dec5 December 12:55

      I love that postcard! Childhood memories.

  • Trent says:
    5 Dec5 December 10:50

    A shame the DUB-IBZ is not coming back. I quite enjoyed it last year and found the food and service on CityFlyer better than the usual flights.

    • Rjhcambs says:
      5 Dec5 December 12:13

      The Saturday flights from STN to NCE are also back on. 6am start this year rather than last year’s leisurely late morning departure. 6am at STN on a summer Saturday morning – no thanks.

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