British Airways appears to have cancelled all of its London Gatwick short-haul services for July, August and early September.
It seems – although it isn’t fully clear – that the most flights have either been transferred to Heathrow, retaining the same flight number, or merged with an existing Heathrow flight on the same day. Some routes will be cancelled outright for the rest of the Summer season, including Almeria, Antalya and Bergamo.
If your flight has been affected, check ‘Manage My Booking’. In particular, you may have lost any existing seat reservations and will need to select again.
Flights return to Gatwick from 8th September although this is clearly subject to change.
Some long-haul flights ARE still scheduled to depart from Gatwick to the Caribbean in late July. It is likely that these will depart from the North Terminal as the South Terminal, used primarily by British Airways, remains closed.
The scheduled flights are:
- Bermuda – 2 per week from 17th July
- Bridgetown, Barbados – 2 per week from 18th July
- Kingston, Jamaica – 2 per week from 20th July
- St Lucia – 1 per week from 25th July
(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)
About Head for Points
Rob has reported from the beginning that Norwegian would not fly long-haul until April 2021. However they were still selling flights to US for September dates until a few weeks ago, although now they are showing flights from December. Is the April date correct, and therefore Norwegian is purposefully selling tickets for flights it will not be operating?
That’s just their plan – but it’s a flexible plan. They might bring forward this April date. On the other hand, their initial plan was to only fly Norwegian domestic flights. Today, 1st July, Norwegian restated international connections from OslO, Stockholm and Copenhagen to different European cities, including London and Barcelona.
So it’s all very fluid and flexible.
My two cents… I actually don’t think their will be a major long haul traffic until at least spring 2021, globally.
If you dine at the Shangri-la’s Ting restaurant, beware that they’ll try their best not to honour the 25% bonus when you use your points. That’s the experience of many of my friends.
How did u pursue it eventually
BA avios RFS flight moved from LGW to LHR – the same flight number and times. Can I cancel for a full refund or because it’s the same flight number, I’ll have to pay the £35 fee? Just would like to clarify this.
Just BA pulling a fast one! My Ibiza flights were moved and I got a full cash refund. Don’t see why you shouldn’t as well.
Thanks Neil, good to know before I call them to argue my case.
Take a look at Article 8 Section 3 of EU261 – it’s pretty clear what your rights in law are for airport changes. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32004R0261&from=EN
Thank you very much Rhys
I’ve one more question. I used the Lloyds upgrade voucher. Usually it would be lost. What happens to it if I choose to take a refund in this case?
There’s more to it than that. Article 8 Section 3 gives you the right to be taken to the other airport… but I thought OP was asking about whether they can take a full refund instead. I’d say yes, since the old flight is considered cancelled. Rerouting to the LHR flight is only one of your 3 choices (from Article 8 1 (b)) – you can choose (a) or (c) instead.
There’s more to it but it’s a good starting point.
My affected bookings say in MMB I can have a full refund, so BA aren’t being difficult. (Actually I think there are arguments they could use to deny refunds if they wanted to.)
Thank you all
“Qatar Airways has been the most outspoken, with CEO Akbar al-Baker threatening Airbus and Boeing not to resist aircraft deferrals or the airline would “not do business with them again.””
Forgive my lack of knowledge re: commercial aircraft, but if he refused to do business with Airbus and Boeing again, what other options would there be for Qatar?
Well quite!
He wouldn’t refuse to do business with both of them. The strategy would appear to be that one of them will cave.
They could take some ex-Soviet aircraft from North Korea or Cuba perhaps
Stick with a fleet that isn’t actually that old.
“…as the coronavirus pandemic *crashes* demand for air travel.”
Eek, unusual word choice for an air travel site! 😬