British Airways launches FOUR new Heathrow short-haul routes – Avios seats wide open

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• Richie says:

  3 Aug3 August 08:16

  Are there skiing oportunities in Slovenia?

  • Gareth says:

    3 Aug3 August 08:43

    Yes.
    https://www.slovenia.info/en/things-to-do/active-holidays/skiing

  • Londonsteve says:

    3 Aug3 August 12:36

    The Slovenian ski resorts are probably best approached from Klagenfurt airport although travellers restricted to using public transport might find it easier from Ljubljana as it cuts out the cross border aspect.

    • John says:

      4 Aug4 August 05:14

      What is the issue with crossing from Austria?

      • Londonsteve says:

        4 Aug4 August 14:29

        A relative lack of public transport services that actually cross the border. It means it might take you half a day to go a relatively short distance. Clearly it’s not a problem if you rent a car.

• Roger W says:

  3 Aug3 August 08:40

  There is skiing in Slovenia.

• Chris W says:

  3 Aug3 August 09:30

  Weird Belgrade is winter only.

  It’s pretty grim in winter!

• ZF says:

  3 Aug3 August 09:31

  Riga will be hard for BA, but as a regular, I hope they stand and carve some ground in there. Wizz is dropping Luton from the winter schedule and basically pulling back from Riga altogether (apart from Kutaisi), which is a big change from having a base a few years back.

  airBaltic has a strong offering with 2x daily to Gatwick (disregarding their customer support or actual product). Their pricing has been absurd, but they’ve done price dumping before to push out other airlines and this might be another case where they’re willing to do that. Ryanair is obviously providing the cheaper end with 2x-3x daily flights to Stansted. BA is also coming in during the winter schedule which will be harder initself to produce stellar results.

  I’ve mostly been flyinf with a connection somewhere in Europe for the best price + performance, especially in business, but I do hope BA keeps this after the Winter (or actually starts flying as they announced it 2 years back and didn’t even start lol)

  • J says:

    3 Aug3 August 11:49

    I’ve never had any issue with airBaltic – the A220 is also spacious and comfortable.

    • illuminatus says:

      3 Aug3 August 12:37

      Their product is nice, but the pricing is borderline ridiculous, hopefully competition from BA will improve things.

    • ZF says:

      3 Aug3 August 13:07

      For occasional travel they’re quite good and if your travel goes smoothly, it can even be a pleasure. But once you start using/needing more – that’s where it falls apart. They are also quite often significantly delayed due to issues of their own making; the A220 is quite nice, but the PW issues have made it a gamble to get on one.

      In addition to generally ridiculous pricing of tickets any add-ons are also overtly overpriced. If you do encounter any issues they are difficult to resolve and there is no communication from them – you’re basically on your own. Any compensation that you are owed is almost impossible to get. Their technology is quite weak – most upgrades/changes that are not the very basics (luggage, food) require a phone call or an obscure online form that might or might not result in a returned email. Their FF scheme is worthless in earning, spending and benefits.

      They’re far from the worst carrier, but the above in combination with the ridiculous pricing makes a new competitor a welcome change.

      • J says:

        3 Aug3 August 13:33

        Interesting insight thanks. I mostly fly with them from Berlin where they are competitive (directly competing against Ryanair) and luckily smooth travels so far.

• MM says:

  3 Aug3 August 10:22

  Sarajevo, rather then Belgrade, could’ve been a better pick. There are no direct UK-Bosnia flights at the moment and Sarajevo appears regularly as a new “hot” destination in travel mags

  • Krishan says:

    3 Aug3 August 10:36

    I agree. I think Tui have started a seasonal flight to Sarajevo from London.

  • can2 says:

    3 Aug3 August 11:09

    Agreed. Sarajevo has been on my list but to get there is tricky — that is tedious

  • Chris W says:

    3 Aug3 August 12:02

    Wizz resume flights from Luton next month.

  • Ian M says:

    3 Aug3 August 12:13

    I visited in 2019, it was tricky to get to then. I was in Poland at the time and had to flew from Warsaw via Vienna.

  • Londonsteve says:

    3 Aug3 August 12:31

    Belgrade is a far more significant destination for either leisure or business travellers and I suspect much of the motivation for opening up the route is seeking to discretely tap into the UK-Russia market whose current options to fly to Europe involve transiting in Istanbul or Belgrade.

    • Ian M says:

      3 Aug3 August 13:15

      Yeah good point. Belgrade is the Europen hub for Russians and people wanting to fly to Russia.

    • Keith says:

      3 Aug3 August 15:01

      Agreed. I was at Belgrade airport last week. There have been quite a few false bomb threats for the Air Serbia flights to/from Russia. In terms of lounge access, the Priority Pass lounge – which I presume BA will use – is pretty poor. The Air Serbia lounge is quite small but pleasant enough. Hot food and a bar. What struck me most about the Air Serbia lounge (which closes at 8pm) was that there were several families with young children. The parents kept their children in check better than I’ve seen at any U.K. lounge, where often the children are just left to run wild. Mr. Burgess take note. (Joke!!)

      • Londonsteve says:

        4 Aug4 August 14:34

        I can imagine the Belgrade-Moscow flights cost an arm and a leg, the demand must be enormous. Air Serbia would commercially wish to put on as many services as possible but there are political sensitivities. I believe the President stepped in when the airline sought to increase frequency to avoid the poor optics of Serbia appearing to profit from EU sanctions, so they’ve been flying their A330s as a workaround. I’m sure that’s still woefully inadequate to meet demand. BA will need to be fairly competitively priced to encourage passengers to self connect, otherwise the target market will just book a through ticket all the way to London on Air Serbia.

  • VSCXFAN says:

    3 Aug3 August 19:01

    Reasonably good value most days to fly one way non-stop with BA and one way one-stop connecting to/from BA at MUC, VIE or ZRH.

• ADS says:

  3 Aug3 August 10:36

  any indication where these 27 slot pairs are coming from ?

• AM says:

  3 Aug3 August 11:03

  The second picture is Turin (Italy)

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