New Greek Summer Routes - Kalamata & Chania
 

From the trade statement:

The summer season only routes to Kalamata (KLX) and Chania (CHQ) will both commence from 30 April 2016 and are available to book from today, 17 November 2015.

Frequencies to Corfu and Santorini will also be increased for summer 2016.

Key Points

Kalamata (KLX)
· BA644/645 summer only service will operate twice weekly
· Operating out of Terminal 5

Chania (CHQ)
· BA660/661 summer only service will operate twice weekly
· Operating out of Terminal 3

Corfu (CFU)
· 2 additional frequencies per week

Santorini (JTR)
· 1 additional frequency per week

Interesting, potentially two more shorthaul+ routes to add to the list.

LHR-KLX is 1484 miles
LH-CHQ is 1641 miles

Obviously neither have been loaded in to the TP & avios calculator atm, but it is fairly likely that they will be 80 TPs in CE one way.

Already listed as shorthaul+ routes earning 80 TPs in CE each way are LHR-CFU and LHR-JTR.

Good news and as I said last year with the other Greek routes BA is building up a nice portfolio in Greece. With the boost in tourism numbers this Summer it made sense to increase capacity. With SSH,MIR being off the list of options Spain,Greece, Portugal etc.. will see more demand.

JTR/JMK saw bumper figures this year. Indeed it is expected that 80 TP's will be the amount earned in CE.

With A3 also boosting capacity on many routes it will be an interesting 2016 for Greece. ^

Perhaps replacing the Sharm route once it is cancelled (which I am convinced they will do!)

Silly question are these ex LHR or ex LGW?

Unless BA is predicting a phenomenal expansion of LGW by next summer I don't believe LGW will have a T3 or T5 ;)

EDIT: for the existing routes of CFU and JTR these are both LHR.

I missed that bit ;) Since they are leisure destinations I thought it was worth checking. I am quite excited about Chania, haven't been there for years.

It is actually interesting the rise of bucket and spade routes from LHR rather than LGW both BA and IB.

Chania is certainly the nicer end of the Island. ^

Yes, the 'leisure' routes are definitely spreading northwards. Menorca, Ibiza, Palma, Gran Canaria, Tenerife North, Corfu, Kos, Chania, Santorini, Mykonos, Kalamata, Olbia, Malaga, Faro, Malaga & Split. That's quite a list now...

Thanks for the heads-up. Excellent news about Kalamata - will make quick trips to the Peloponnese much more do-able (I'm very fond of the Koroni area)

I wonder whether this is a new and permanent trend, or whether these are slotting sitting at LHR, awaiting more lucrative destinations with high business or connecting traffic.

Perhaps BA are also waiting for the LGW move to occur and bed down before loading in lots of extra leisure flights.

Summer weekend leisure flights make sense from LCY, where the slots have little alternative use; but it harder to make that case for LHR slots. One consequence is a far higher CE fare than would be the case ex-LGW.

Glad to see these new routes (although it would be a bit out of the way for me to take advantage of them)!

If the BA gods are listening, please add Kefalonia to the list! I don't want to fly low cost or charter airlines any more!

^

Don't forget the IOM. It's getting 27 flights a week (up from 19) this summer. Not so good on the TPs though.