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BA Euroflyer ready to take off at Gatwick as it receives CAA approval

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When British Airways relaunched short haul flights from London Gatwick in March 2022, there were major changes.

It was decided that Gatwick short haul flights would be undertaken by a brand new airline. Whilst it would look and feel like ‘mainline’ British Airways flights from Heathrow, it would be a totally separate entity behind the scenes.

The only way that the airline could successfully compete with easyJet and Wizz Air at Gatwick, it was felt, was if it could hire its own pilots and crew on its own terms (ie for less).

Whilst the new airline was announced and a new management team hired – headed initially by Tom Stoddart, who also runs BA CityFlyer which operates at City Airport – it wasn’t legally operational. For Summer 2022, flights were still being operated by British Airways.

This will now change. BA Euroflyer has just received its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) and Operating Licence from the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

With the licensing in place, aircraft, flight crew and cabin crew can be transferred over to the new company, which has its offices at Gatwick.

BA Euroflyer will receive 10 Airbus A320s and nine Airbus A321s from British Airways over the next six months.

Long haul flights from Gatwick will continue to be operated by British Airways itself. Domestic flights into Gatwick will also continue to be operated by British Airways, not BA Euroflyer, with aircraft and crew flying Heathrow – XXXXX – Gatwick – XXXXX – Heathrow in one rotation.

There are no changes to how you earn or redeem Avios on BA Euroflyer, and the existing lounge complex remains. Catering is supplied by a different company at Gatwick but this has been the case for many years. Nothing should change for you as a passenger.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (21)

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

  • NorthernLass says:
    9 Dec9 December 06:31

    In my bleary-eyed state a bit early I read this as “BA Eurofighter ready to take off…”

  • Richie says:
    9 Dec9 December 08:32

    A321s haven’t been at Gatwick for BA since the days of GB Airways. CE additional capacity will be welcome for the double TPs offer.

  • Alan says:
    9 Dec9 December 09:18

    Would be nice if they reinstated some more domestic flights so we could actually use LGW routes again…

    • Aberdeen Neil says:
      9 Dec9 December 10:54

      You would think so, especially with the connecting long haul leisure flights from LGW. I have emailed BA regarding connecting flights from the regions, they thanked me for my email and were sorry I had experienced a delay on my flight!

    • TimM says:
      9 Dec9 December 10:54

      BA decided that Gatwick is their leisure route airport and that leisure travellers don’t change planes at a hub – hence domestic connections are not required!

      • Blenz101 says:
        9 Dec9 December 13:19

        In fairness, BA didn’t decide. Passengers did. If it was viable it would exist.

        • NorthernLass says:
          9 Dec9 December 14:23

          How was it not viable? When it last actually operated from MAN (about 10 years ago, I think!), those flights were full of people connecting to destinations like Orlando and the Caribbean (my family used to use the route to get to and from Bermuda, although that is admittedly bit niche and now departs LHR in any case!)

          • Alistair Wilson says:
            10 Dec10 December 00:38

            Just because it’s full , doesn’t mean it’s making money

          • Ashley says:
            10 Dec10 December 03:35

            They did MAN recently and the flights were empty. They moved it back to just LHR for that reason

        • Andrew. says:
          9 Dec9 December 14:58

          If it wasn’t viable, Easyjet wouldn’t run 20+ flights a week from Edinburgh to Gatwick, and 17 a week from Glasgow to Gatwick.

        • dougzz99 says:
          9 Dec9 December 15:34

          BA have limited resources, aircraft and crew, it maybe that other destination are just more profitable.

  • barry cutters says:
    9 Dec9 December 15:06

    is it likely we will have an availability dump on LGW flights soon?

    • Rob says:
      9 Dec9 December 15:14

      No, All the routes were released a few weeks ago – we had an ’emergency’ extra article at the time so you could grab the seats. There is 1, possibly 2, more routes to be added according to management but that’s it.

    • Richie says:
      9 Dec9 December 15:15

      Worth keeping an eye on.

  • Chris says:
    9 Dec9 December 16:43

    As others say, impossible to use these routes easily if you don’t live near Gatwick. Regional customers definitely being overlooked. For many years I chose to connect over Gatwick instead of Heathrow if I could. Now I use Aegean instead of BA and avoid London altogether.

    • Londonsteve says:
      9 Dec9 December 18:35

      Little different from the likes of Easyjet and Wizz, both of whom have major bases at LGW and don’t offer connecting flights. Sure, you can fly with EZY from Glasgow and connect onto an onward service but the connection is entirely at your own risk. Gatwick clearly has a sufficiently large catchment area to merit all these flights without relying on regional connections. BA is probably thinking that most passengers would rather fly direct to their destination on a low cost carrier than to connect in London and thus double or triple their total travelling time.

  • Jack says:
    9 Dec9 December 22:54

    BA need to restart domestic connections to places like Edinburgh from Gatwick again the flights were always full and restart the short lived Manchester route . They also need more than the one daily flight to Glasgow a day. Gatwick is a much easier airport to get to and increasing domestic flights there will also boost euro flyer and Gatwick long haul . Will be interesting to see A321 down at Gatwick don’t believe they ever have been before now

    • JMac says:
      10 Dec10 December 08:03

      Completely agree… I had an expiring old style companion voucher recently used for Glasgow to Alicante. Perfect on the way there with a short layover in Gatwick. Changing from Gatwick to Heathrow on the return (as there is only one flight a day) was something I probably would be reluctant to do again.

      Gatwick was always my backup plan for work if I couldn’t get a flight to/from LCY or I had a little more time/flexibility as London Bridge through to Farringdon is pretty convenient. The flight was always packed so it is odd that it doesn’t seem to have reappeared. I do my best to not fly EasyJet as well… you don’t get TPs…

  • Michael says:
    11 Dec11 December 20:30

    I really miss the BA domestic at LGW the cabin crew were always excellent, now I use Loganair at Southampton. Easyjet just not reliable enough when you need to connect at GLA or EDIN. Great shame for me. LHR just too much of a hassle to get to.

  • Fen Tiger says:
    12 Dec12 December 07:15

    Shades of BAEOG when Dan Air packed up in 199……..? Separate AOC etc etc.

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