British Airways has started moving Gatwick flights to Heathrow

British Airways has started the process of moving Gatwick short-haul flights for Summer 2022 to Heathrow.

This follows the decision to close the short-haul operation at London Gatwick following the failure to reach agreement with pilot union BALPA over a new low cost operating structure.

Most flights are moving to Heathrow with the same flight number and the same departure and arrival times. You have no grounds for a free cancellation or for compensation for the cost of getting from Gatwick to Heathrow, since the two airports are treated as one for this purpose. That said, if you take British Airways to Money Claim Online you may get a positive decision – there is no point going to CEDR arbitration as BA is, technically, acting correctly.

Some flights may be merged with existing Heathrow departures on the few routes which overlap between Gatwick and Heathrow.

Quite a few of the moved flights are showing as Heathrow Terminal 3, so it will be a bit of a novelty for anyone who has only used the BA facilities in Terminal 5 in the past.

Keep an eye on your seat allocation when you receive the email about your changed flight, although in most cases you will have retained your existing ones.

If there is no slot waiver given for Summer 2022, it seems highly likely that BA will forfeit some of its landing and take off slots at Gatwick. Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL do not have enough slack to take them all up, which will require British Airways to sell them or see them taken away.

It is only four years since BA paid a chunky but undisclosed sum to buy Monarch’s 155 weekly take-off and landing slots at London Gatwick. In retrospect this seems like an odd decision if the Gatwick operation really had been losing money for many years, as British Airways management has claimed.

For clarity, the British Airways long-haul operation at Gatwick is not affected by this decision. Based on previous years, up to 11 Boeing 777 aircraft could be based there during the Summer 2022 season.

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