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

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British Airways has announced four new short haul routes from London Heathrow for the winter season, which starts at the end of October.

To be more precise:

  • there are three new routes
  • there is one route new to Heathrow
  • there are two summer routes which are now being extended into the winter season
Cologne british airways

Three brand new short haul routes

The following three cities are not currently served by British Airways but will see services resume:

  • Belgrade
  • Cologne (image above)
  • Riga

You may be surprised that Cologne is not currently flown, but it isn’t. There was a London Gatwick route from 2018 until the start of the pandemic.

Riga is currently served from London Gatwick as a codeshare on the airBaltic service, but these flights are expensive and are not available for Avios redemption.

Here is the small print:

Belgrade

There will be three flights per week from Terminal 5, starting on 31st October. Services operate on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The route is currently only bookable for the winter season to the end of March but the intention is that it will become permanent if it performs as expected.

Cologne

There will be 12 flights per week from Terminal 5, starting on 30th October. The route will operate year-round.

Riga

There will be three flights per week from Terminal 5, starting on 29th October. Services operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The route is currently only bookable for the winter season to the end of March but the intention is that it will become permanent if it performs as expected.

Turin british airways

One new route to Heathrow

Flights to Turin will launch from Heathrow on 10th December. Image above.

There will be just one flight per week (Sunday) from Terminal 5. The service will only operate until the end of March.

The existing BA Euroflyer service from Gatwick, with seven flights per week, will continue.

Two routes are extended into the winter

The existing summer routes to Ljubljana and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (SAW) are extended into the winter season.

Ljubljana will see four flights per week from Terminal 3, on Monday / Wednesday / Friday / Sunday.

Istanbul will see four flights per week from Terminal 5, on Monday / Thursday / Friday / Sunday.

Booking

Flights are bookable at ba.com now for cash or Avios.

To maximise your miles when paying, your best bet is the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card which earns double Avios (3 per £1) when you book at ba.com or via BA Holidays. 

You do not get double Avios if you book with the free British Airways American Express card, the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard or the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard.

Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (49)

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

  • Richie says:
    3 Aug3 August 08:16

    Are there skiing oportunities in Slovenia?

  • 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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