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British Airways Gatwick short-haul flights suspended until 9th November

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There are currently no short-haul British Airways flights from London Gatwick.  The only departures are a handful of Caribbean flights – one per day – which are operating from the North Terminal.  BA’s home in the South Terminal remains closed.

British Airways was planning to resume services from Gatwick Airport on 9th September.

This now appears to have changed.  Looking at ba.com, it seems that London Gatwick short-haul flights have been pulled until 9th November.

British Airways Gatwick flights suspended until November 2020

You can check this easily.  Look at London to Amsterdam for 9th November and you will see three flights from Gatwick.  Click back a day to Sunday 8th November or earlier and there is nothing.

This is clearly a fluid situation.  It may be that the move to November was only decided when the new restrictions on travel to Spain were brought in on Saturday.

One factor which will decide when flights move back will be a decision on whether the ‘use it or lose it’ rule for airport take-off and landing slots is brought back for the IATA Winter flying ‘season’.

If British Airways is at risk of losing its London Heathrow slots due to non use, you can be fairly certain that nothing will be moving back to Gatwick until late March due to the need to ‘slot sit’.


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Comments (85)

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

  • Kathryn Daniels says:

    My flights to Bilbao have been switched to Heathrow. Apart from.the fact I have to rearrange my car parking and hotels again(!) it’s actually better for me. Fingers crossed for a lifting of the quarantine/FCO warning by then

  • David Wakelin says:

    Same things happened to my December MCO trip !
    Question for you though – any idea what configuration of 777 they are using from LHR ?
    I’m out Dec 20 back Dec 29 and I can’t find any seat maps online (BA, seat guru etc) that match the seats on “manage my booking” I would have assumed it would be the LGW 3 class but that doesn’t match up
    Thanks if you can help, David

    • LMG says:

      Expertflyer is showing as 3class but with the new Club World Cabin (pods) so a LHR based 777-200

  • Colin Davie says:

    Yesterday they cancelled my flight to Orlando on the 22nd Novemer BA2037 and didn’t offer a different flight.

  • Barry Neaves says:

    Mine have been reassigned to Heathrow. works better for me. Happy days. shame i couldn’t manually accept as it was done with Avios points, but spoke to someone helpful today and all sorted!

  • Ian says:

    They’ve changed my outbound from LGW-ACE to LHR-ACE but my inbound still showing as ACE-LGW I’m only 20 minutes from LHR but it’ll be a pain getting back from LGW without a car in the early hours !!

    • Rhys says:

      You’ll probably find the inbound will change in the next few days/weeks too.

  • Marie says:

    BA have cancelled our booking to take our 90 year old mother from LGW to Faro on 12 October, returning two weeks later. Instead they’ve put us on Heathrow flights. The distance from us to Heathrow with a 90 year old is unacceptable- can we get a full refund on the flights and car hire under the same booking?

    • Rob says:

      Yes, should be possible but you will need to call BA Holidays, assuming you booked it as a package.

  • Peter Harrison says:

    I am travelling to Antigua for a wedding using ba 2157. Cannot get sensible answer. Flight is in my BA manage my flight but this is a Monday. BA seem to be flying SATURDAY AND WEDNESDAY. So flight may not be on. Cant get a sensible answer whether this flight could be from Gatwick (N or S) or from Heathrow. Any ideas or suggestions please as BA Customer Service not helpful.
    Regards Peter

    • Rob says:

      Whatever is currently bookable at ba.com is what is happening. Manage My Booking is updated far later than the timetable is updated.

      You don’t say what month you’re flying, but it will be Gatwick North for the forseeable future.

  • hackinjack says:

    FYI LGW cancellations are coming out this afternoon for Sept flights.
    I had email cancelling LGW->MLA Sep 20 and rebooked from LHR. I don’t want that, tried several times to call and they just cut you off, no queuing on the IVR, just a message saying call another time. However I got someone on web chat within 30 secs and they were able to process the cancellation and refund within 2 minutes. Very efficient and helpful.
    Way to go for anyone else not wanting a voucher or bonus avios options.

    • Lisa says:

      When you say web chat, do you mean Twitter? I couldn’t find any options for web chat on their website

      • hackinjack says:

        No, just log in on ba.com and a little window should pop up offering assistance. The automated replies are pretty useless, but get through a couple of them and it says “do you want to chat to an agent”.

        • Lisa says:

          Thanks, will look into it, think I need to adjust my browser settings to allow pop-ups 🙂

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