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Bits: BA adds three new short haul routes, how to check British Airways lounge loads

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News in brief:

British Airways adds three new short haul routes

BA announced three new routes to Europe yesterday. Because flights have only just been loaded to ba.com, Avios availability should be wide open, even at peak periods.

The first new route is from Gatwick to Rabat in Morocco, image below.

Rabat becomes BA’s third route to Morocco after Marrakech and Agadir (Casablanca is handled by oneworld partner Royal Air Maroc). Flights will start on 5th November and operate every Wednesday and Saturday.

Gatwick will also see the launch of flights to Graz in Austria.

There are currently no flights from any London airport on any airline to Graz, so BA is filling a gap. It becomes the fourth Austrian route after Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck.

The route will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 21st November.

Finally, London City Airport will see the launch of flights to Madrid.

There will be 11 flights per week, taking the total number of BA services across all airports to 44 per week. This excludes the multiple Iberia flights.

Flights will begin on 1st December.

All three routes will operate year-round. These are not ‘winter only’ services.

British Airways launches flights to Rabat

Check how busy the British Airways Heathrow lounges are

Back in 2022, we posted a link to a handy tool. Whilst it keeps getting flagged in our forum we haven’t mentioned it for three years in an article.

Via this link you can see the current passenger volumes in the British Airways lounges at Heathrow Terminal 5. A screenshot is below, taken at 5pm on Tuesday.

Check how busy the British Airways Heathrow lounges are

Given how far apart the Galleries North and Galleries South lounges are, it could come in useful when deciding which way to go. I doubt many people can face the walk from North to South, or vice versa, if they arrive in one and find it busy.

It is also a reminder that, if your flight departs from the 5B or 5C satellites, the Galleries lounge in Terminal 5B is virtually certain to be quieter than those in the main terminal.

You can check the lounge loads here.

Thanks to Matthias for the reminder.

Comments (60)

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    There’s also an app called ‘Loungebird’ that provides the same information and also allows you to save the lounge activity as a widget to your home screen which is useful for frequent travellers. Loungebird also allows you to see the current occupation levels of the Concorde Room which the website does not

  • RichK says:

    You should also check out the Loungebird app available in the Apple App Store.

  • daveinitalia says:

    Loungebird provides this info in a convenient app and also covers the Concorde Room as well as showing historical information so you can work out which times are usually busiest

    • cranzle says:

      Thanks for that information.

      Obviously BA’s management can’t allocate the budget for this to be included in their app. But I’m sure we’re all delighted with sequel after sequel of their all star, big budget safety videos.

      • daveinitalia says:

        Not having to watch those videos every week is the only good thing about them removing the screens from the shorthaul fleet

      • Rhys says:

        There is supposed to be a long-delayed new app coming….would be sensible to include this.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          Is that why they didn’t go to the party? 🤣🤣🤣

          (BTW reply option not visible on your comment about BA not talking to you)

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        But at least they’ve made the data available for others to use.

        The app is clunky enough as it is at the moment without adding extras onto it.

        And that’s the problem with the website and App it’s backbone isn’t a single system but multiple ones and they don’t always play well together.

        If they are going to add data to the app then I think most people would prefer earlier notifications of gates

  • TimM says:

    Since when was Morocco in Europe?

    • kevin86 says:

      😂

    • Andy says:

      This is how journalism works these days. Instead of writing quality material, you write something so deliberately idiotic that people feel compelled to engage with it.

      • Ian says:

        Is this journalism?

        • John33 says:

          Yes, client journalism. It’s what this site usually is. Although in fairness to them, this time they just copied the information from Sean Moulton. I’m not sure this makes it any better though.

          Either way, embarrassing.

          • Rhys says:

            John you’ll be pleased to know our coverage of BA is so favourable that they won’t even talk to us any more 🙂

          • Rob says:

            What BA has paid us this year literally will not pay for the dinner I had on Monday night with a few friends 🙂

            In HfP world, Europe = short-haul and we tend to use the two words interchangeably. We don’t necessarily mean the country involved is in Europe 🙂

            For the same reason we tend to use short-haul = Europe, even though arguably Larnaca etc is not really short-haul albeit it is flown on an aircraft typically used for short-haul routes.

          • Richie says:

            @John33 God save the points might be the site you were thinking of.

    • PeterK says:

      Whilst not in Europe, IATA has always included the North African countries of Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia in their European Traffic Conference area given its close proximity to Europe and in the main airlines offering only a short haul product from Europe.

      • NorthernLass says:

        I’m guessing as that Canaries/Azores have longer flights from the U.K. than some North African airports so it makes sense from that perspective!

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      Interesting fact Morocco is the only African country to ever take part in the Eurovision Song Contest.

    • ZW says:

      Much better to use “BA adds three short haul routes” than European routes. Morocco is not in Europe, and the title is just blatant cultural insensitivity.

  • Mark says:

    Good to see T5B lounges remain relatively quiet, chalk and cheese in terms of experience vs the the other galleries lounges.

  • tony says:

    That service is fine – except when it’s not. Went through LHR last month, said South lounge was 0/5. Walked down there, was bursting at the seams, the few tables that were clear were strewn with used plates & glasses as the staff couldn’t cope with the abnormal influx of passengers who thought the lounge was empty…..

    • Barrel for Scraping says:

      The Loungebird app tells you when the API is down, rather than just showing the lounge as empty

  • Bertie says:

    Oh dear, shoddy tabloid writing regarding Morocco and geography.

  • 1ATL says:

    Rabat is operating on Wednesdays and Sundays (Not Wednesdays Saturdays as per article)

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