British Airways adds Edinburgh to Gatwick flights

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• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  24 Mar24 March 05:17

  IIRC 12.30 is the earliest a flight can land or take off at LCY on a Sunday so those arrival time are likely the earliest slots they can get whilst allowing them an out and back home route before the airport closes at 22,00

• Simon says:

  24 Mar24 March 05:18

  I was able to see Japan Airlines availability between Tokyo and New York just a few days ago so this might be route specific?

• Sam Sneddon says:

  24 Mar24 March 05:22

  When did BA stop having much in the way of domestic flights to Gatwick? Was this 2020, or earlier? I certainly remember a decade ago there being three or four flights per day from Glasgow.

  • Alan says:

    24 Mar24 March 16:20

    Stopped during COVID and never came back. Really annoying given they keep moving more longhaul flights across to LGW.

• JAXBA says:

  24 Mar24 March 05:40

  Thought there was a union agreement preventing the modern Cityflyer from operating to LGW? Maybe that went away when Euroflyer was implemented?

• Phillip says:

  24 Mar24 March 06:29

  There seems to be plenty of JAL availability on other dates that matches between AA and BA so is this one of AA’s ghost availability issues or something to do with last minute award flight availability?

• Greenpen says:

  24 Mar24 March 07:08

  Recently I have suspected that the BA site is not showing quite a few available redemptions. Been looking at BKK – LON one ways and all of a sudden reasonable availability disappeared. Okay, it is probably a popular routing but QR Js just vanished.

• ianM says:

  24 Mar24 March 07:42

  Lack of Scottish connections to Gatwick is a disgrace, this does nothing.

  • Lesley says:

    24 Mar24 March 08:23

    Agreed, we had to fly back into Gatwick recently and spent 2 hours on the bus in horrendous traffic getting to LHR to fly back to Scotland.

    • RussellH says:

      24 Mar24 March 10:02

      Surely it would have been far simpler to take the train?

      57 mins direct to St Pancras, short walk to Kings Cross for Edinburgh, or Euston for Glasgow? You would be on the train back to Scotland while the bus was still crawling along the M25.

      • Andrew. says:

        24 Mar24 March 13:17

        Bus runs every hour and can be quite reliable off peak. It’s the timetabled service between Oxford and Gatwick. Three buses an hour to LHR with one extended to LGW.

        But thanks to LibDem evangelical anti-car measures Oxfordshire County Council coaches are running up to 90 minutes late at times within Oxford – and that’s before classic M25 business.

      • Alan says:

        24 Mar24 March 16:21

        Quite a bit more expensive than the free domestic connection on the longhaul flight though.

  • Richie says:

    24 Mar24 March 08:38

    It feeds very well into BA flights to Orlando, so it’s about aircraft utilisation during LCY weekend closure and revenues for Orlando long hauls. Looking like a win-win.

    • Laura says:

      24 Mar24 March 09:01

      Yes but only a Sunday sadly, and many of us have already booked flights for summer period, and unfortunately for us we miss on our return by a day 🤦‍♀️ so can’t even try and change 😔

    • Froggee says:

      24 Mar24 March 15:48

      I wonder if they are trying to mess up Virgin a bit on pricing for their direct EDI-MCO flight if the timings works with BA’s Orlando flight.

  • Jake says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:08

    But what about it is a disgrace?

    BA and IAG are private companies. What is disgraceful about operating routes more profitable than Scottish connections.

    If the route would make £££, BA would run it. Very simple.

    People don’t complain about other simple supply/ demand characteristics so why BA.

    Aberdeen doesn’t have a Harrods, Inverness doesn’t have a selfridges. No demand. No supply. But that’s not a disgrace surely?

    • Chris R says:

      24 Mar24 March 09:37

      This is the counter argument every time. As a standalone route, I could see this being the case, but surely as a feeder service it makes more commercial sense. The single GLA flight pretty much rules out the vast majority of LGW options, forcing me to look at non-BA alternatives

      • BJ says:

        24 Mar24 March 11:50

        I’d put money on it that LHR/LCY-EDI are the most profitable routes on BA network.

      • Jake says:

        24 Mar24 March 13:26

        I don’t disagree that it is surprising that more feeders don’t make commercial sense but also don’t think it’s disgraceful of BA not to run the flights if they believe aircraft can be better utilised elsewhere.

        I don’t think BA should be held to a different bar than other businesses all of whom plan their service offering based on profitability and commercial viability.

    • Scotsman says:

      25 Mar25 March 03:59

      As a flag carrier for the nation, you would expect better connectivity for the largest cities in the UK to the main hubs in London. Thankfully easyJet fill the gap with GLA/EDIn -LGW flights….but that’s an additional cost to the customer and having to build in a long layover for potential delays. MAYBE BA should lay on buses between LHR-LGE if they are going to move more long haul to LGW.

      Your arguement is used often for buses in rural areas which are not profitable, but it neglects the fact the bus company (BA) often get preferential treatment or subsides in various guises to ensure connectivity but they just want to pocket the money.

• TimM says:

  24 Mar24 March 08:14

  I would like to see BA forced by law to maintain domestic connections or else lose the right to use the name ‘British’, and it be awarded to an airline that does.

  • Geoff says:

    24 Mar24 March 08:34

    😂

  • BJ says:

    24 Mar24 March 08:40

    So you think something like London and North Eastern Airways (LNEA) would be more appropriate? 🙂

  • Paul says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:06

    Agreed! The lack of direct services to main land Europe from Scotland, the midlands and the north of England is shocking. Moreover in any disruption the very first flights to be cancelled are domestic! The basically gave up those routes to Easy Jet and Ryan air

    • dougzz99 says:

      24 Mar24 March 09:56

      No matter what they might say in a forum or in a survey, the vast majority of people book on price. BA don’t give those routes to Ryanair and Easyjet, they just can’t compete on price with LCC.
      Nothing about it is shocking, it’s economics. Unless subsidies come into play why would BA run routes to lose money.

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