BA announces new Gatwick route to Sharm El Sheikh
 

Haven't seen this posted yet:

Holidaymakers will be able to choose from two flights a week to the diving holiday hotspot. Flights will increase to three times a week during the winter months offering even more options and flexible flying times.

This new route follows a recent announcement that the airline will also start flying from Gatwick to Seville in Spain, Las Palmas in Gran Canaria and Funchal in Madeira.

Colm Lacy, Head of Commercial Gatwick, said: “We’re really pleased to add another route to our 2015 portfolio on top of the 11 Gatwick routes we’ve recently announced, bringing our total short-haul network to 45 routes and 18 long-haul.

“Sharm El Sheikh is only five hours away and it’s a popular choice with families, and a favourite with divers thanks to the crystal clear waters”.

Customers will also benefit from competitive fares, starting from £219 return, including taxes and charges, and return hand baggage only fares starting from £199, including taxes and charges.

Flights to Sharm El Sheikh will operate on British Airways’ fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft from Gatwick.

Painful.
And often more than 5 hours on the way back...

Not really a new route
Was tried and failed on a 772 fairly recently.


cs

at least it's a direct option! any idea of times? as cs notes, it's been tried before but the timings (iirc) were terrible

Answering my own question: 9am (ish) outbound, landing around 16:00, then returning 17:00 ish back into LGW around 21:00. Quite civilized. But a long flight in a 320.

Not really new route, but a resurrection of an old one. Flew there in CW in 2010 in a 777.

Will this be the longest BA A320 route? 30" pitch Club Europe I'm sure will go down well on that route..

Do people ever have a good word to say on here?! I give up..:mad:

I will add with my TP run hat on that this is well over the threshold to be a shorthaul+ route so should be 80 TPs each way in CE.

But it was also a pretty successful GB route before that. This is therefore BA's third attempt.

With 772 was this an intermediate stop en route to Male(?). Timings weren't too good and Arab spring put off lots of people from going to Egypt.

I personally think BA should do OK with this one. It is a long flight for a SH configured plane, but (a) what is the competition and (b) what does the target market expect. I imagine BA reckon this will do as well as GB did with a similar operation not so long ago.

Another destination resumed from the ex-GB list I posted not that long ago:)

I/we do sometimes, don't give up :)

Bit of a shame that they don't operate any midhaul 321s ex LGW as that would seem perfect for the route in my opinion !


cs

was about say "surely a good thing to have the extra route" and 5 hours on a 320 isn't too different than some mid/long haul flights in Y. 757s do TATL. 321s do transcon in US. etc.

in fact, not sure a Y seat on 777 or 744 makes it very different from a Y seat on 320 though I personally do prefer the 'big plane' feel (and twin aisle) for longer flights.

And I most certainly do about most things BA/LGW

Always glad to see more routes being added. Just a shame that it will be difficult for any uk connections on the return times.


cs

5 hours in CE with that pitch is almost unthinkable!

I'm really hoping BA brings back TUN quite soon! Was such a convenient route for me (speaking selfishly) but a route that used to be served 7x a week should be able to support a 2x weekly service (especially considering the huge holiday destination that it is).