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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 (70)

  • Inman says:

    Rabat is an interesting choice. Its not really a resort city, not really a big city and not a transit hub. And you can get from Casablanca to Rabat in less than an hour by the TGV Al Boraq train or 1 1/2 hours by car.
    I would have thought Tangier would have been a better option.

    • Dev says:

      Rabat is ridiculously high yield for Air France who fly there 3x daily constituting 25% of the entire daily schedule from that airport.

      Rabat is a strange city. It’s an administrative city full of Moroccan elites rather than having any sort of buzz that you get from a commercial city.

      Having there until this morning, there is little to do beyond a couple of nights max. New hotels includes: Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Conrad and a few others in the last few years.

      What it desperately needs for a high yield luxury traveler is a couple of really elevated dining options. One or two Michelin star places would bring it up to other luxury weekend break places.

      Top tip- the Medina is far more civilized than the one in Marrakech.

  • The Original Nick says:

    @tony, I was told last month at the desk that the system wasn’t working. It was showing 0/5 but it was rammed.

    • The real Swiss Tony says:

      Interesting. I was through on the evening of June 15th. Only Club South showed 0/5 – the others were populated. Had a word with one of the floor manager types and they said they were aware but made out it had only just happened.

  • RussellH says:

    Graz is a brilliant place – Austria’s 2nd city and much more important to Austria than Salzburg and Innsbruck. But yes, still largely off the mass tourism trail.

    • NorthernLass says:

      I went on a school exchange to Graz in the mid-80s! I recall it was very pretty, with alpine-type houses. Isn’t it also Arnold Schwarzenegger’s home town 😂

      • NorthernLass says:

        Our German teacher was obsessed with all things Austrian, so all the school trips went there instead of Germany!

      • RussellH says:

        I think you are right about Schwarzenegger. But not really a reason to visit.
        I do not recall any reference to him any any of the leaflets picked up while there.

        • SheafPete says:

          For any keen Schwarzenegger fans you can visit his childhood home and museum/exhibition a few miles outside Graz.

    • Londonsteve says:

      Graz is indeed lovely. I was surprised to read that there are no direct flights to London, I’d have thought Ryanair would have long since starting flying from STN, considering they’ve flown to the not too distant but smaller Klagenfurt for the last 2 decades. I can only conclude that Klagenfurt’s proximity to Slovenia draws passengers from northern Slovenia and Ljubjana which is quite an expensive place to fly to, improving the yield. I noticed that there were a lot of Slovenian cars dropping off passengers at Klagenfurt airport prior to my flight to STN.

    • Alex Sm says:

      If Eurovision is held in Graz in 2026, these flights could be handy! We did redemption flights to Basel this year and it was a very good deal given the cash prices… 🤓

  • Nick says:

    I’m still waiting for Tunis to open up, defiantly a market there as 2 Tunisian airlines offer direct flights to London just about everyday all year round

  • Garethgerry says:

    When they offer a new short-haul route from anywhere but London then that will be worth reporting.

    • Londonsteve says:

      Other than BACF seeking to utilise their aircraft during the weekend shutdown at LCY I can’t see that happening unfortunately. The LCC competition is too intense and there’s no BA transit traffic at secondary UK airports.

      • NorthernLass says:

        LCC’s are very expensive from the NW now, they know they have no competition!

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