Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What are the British Airways weekend leisure flights from London City Airport?

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Last week we published a list of all British Airways CityFlyer routes from the UK regions – ie Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh, plus Stansted.

This article has a list of all of CityFlyer’s leisure weekend destinations from London City Airport this summer.  We’ve also included weekday flights to cities which are primarily leisure-focused (Florence is in, Frankfurt is not!).

We decided to publish it after a couple of reader requests.  We accept that it is a bit of a niche one – the main people who will find this article useful are those who live or work near Canary Wharf and who find getting to Heathrow or Gatwick to be more of a pain.

During the week, BA CityFlyer flies from London City Airport to key business destinations in Europe.  At weekends it offers a range of leisure destinations to maximise the use of its aircraft.

BA Embraer E190

As a reminder, CityFlyer has a fleet of Embraer aircraft with 2-2 seating in Club Europe and Euro Traveller. Unlike the mainline British Airways fleet, you get a free drink and snack service regardless of what class you book.  This is because of the logistical issues involved in running a buy on-board service given the space and crew constraints on these small aircraft.

Of course, it’s not all good news flying from London City. There is no British Airways lounge, there is no fast track security and priority boarding has little value when 75% of the passengers have BA status.

As a subsidiary of British Airways, you can earn and burn Avios and tier points on CityFlyer flights just as you would on any other BA flight.

Below is the full list of CityFlyer leisure routes operated this summer from London City.

We have flagged in brackets those routes which earn 160 British Airways Executive Club tier points if you fly Club Europe and are therefore worth a look if you are chasing British Airways status.

Bergerac: Thursday – Monday
Faro: Thursday-Monday
Florence: daily
Ibiza: daily
Malaga: daily
Menorca: Friday and Monday
Mykonos: daily in July and August, Friday – Monday in May, June and September (160 tier points)
Nice: Daily
Palma: daily
Prague: Friday, Sunday, Monday
Quimper: Thursday, Saturday, Sunday
Rome: Thursday-Monday
San Sebastian: Friday, Monday (starts 10th July)
Santorini: Friday and Tuesday (160 tier points)
Skiathos: Friday and Monday (160 tier points)
Split: Thursday, Friday, Monday
Venice: Friday, Saturday, Monday

You can book on the BA website.  The start and end dates for the season vary by route.

PS.  If you missed it, take a look at our recent article on the top 10 reasons to apply for the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (24)

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

  • Rob Valt says:

    Probably worth mentioning to people how expensive these routes can be. Santorini in early September from LCY for over £500 each in economy, flight only. Even for extra status points a total rip off

    • Lady London says:

      I’m too scared to look at Bergerac, which is not too far from some of my haunts.

      Last few times I took a look at BA it was priced for millionaires only. EasyJet and Ryanair were not far behind.

      You’re right these routes for summer are a very good strategy for British Airways. Quite smart as they are taking a load of cream off the top of other airlines’ peak season without committing to run any of these when they are less profitable. After all huge chunks of UK & Europe’s working millionaires must be very willing to pay good money for flights that use LCY.

      (Through gritted teeth) Well done, BA.

      • Anna says:

        I’ve officially abandoned BA apart from direct summer routes from MAN and long haul on award seats or where they are the best option anyway (annual trip to GCM being the best example of both). I’ve just booked Ryanair to Carcassonne for October half term, £99 return which includes seat selection, priority boarding and 10k of hand luggage plus handbag. No brainier.

  • alan young says:

    Also worth mentioning is that LCY has the dearest car park in Europe, as in cost not pleasantries .

    • Nick says:

      It also has its own DLR station with direct access to the check-in concourse and incredibly frequent services in both directions, so no one actually needs to park there anyway.

      • Lady London says:

        Only on weekends when the DLR has often been up the spout in the past.

  • Polly says:

    Tempting to use the Bergerac RFS route, but can’t rely on southwestern trains to get us into London. On strike more than running these days. Stick with FR from STN and hope we make it into the Escape lounge for an hour or so. Or not!

  • ChrisBCN says:

    Useful to know, thanks

  • Lochlann says:

    Have done a few of these routes and have just experienced LOT from LCY as well – underseat power on the Embraer to Budapest! Also booked for Vilnius in a few month’s time. There’s more than just BA on the leisure front.

  • Patrycja Coz says:

    I’ve done Edinburgh to Mykonos route via London City. It was very expensive for economy (£650) but there were not many other options for Mykonos on the dates we needed to fly.
    Passport control was a nightmare as there were only 2 passport gates and the queue to them was huge. We nearly missed our flight and needed to get stuff member to let us skip the queue. One to consider if you are booking from a regional airport, give yourself time between flights. Our connection was only an hour. I thought that would be enough given I usually fly into City for work during the week. City at the weekend is not fun, gone are business travellers who know how to get through security quickly and efficiently, welcome families with kids and a lot of luggage.

  • Concerto says:

    I thought there were no flights from LCY at weekends, but maybe that’s changed.

  • e14 says:

    Prague is wrong it’s daily except Sat and I assume that you have Berlin as a non leisure flight

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

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