corporate-wage-slave

As you indicate, BA is currently 90% in hibernation at the moment, and what will emerge at the other end of the pandemic is anyone's guess. BA senior management won't know either.

But leaving that to one side, typically this would be a LGW service, operating for holiday makers during the extended summer period, essentially pre- Easter to end of October.At least in the past there would be not much traffic from November to mid March, even though the weather there is generally quite congenial during the UK winter. If it was to operate "now" it would in fact operate from LHR, we have no idera how long that would continue. It's a typical A320 service route, the other options - A319 or A321 - are for various reasons less likely on that service. You would get a full meal and bar service in Club Europe, unlike say AA. Indeed for the very few middle of the night services that BA ran from Spain they would serve up meals at 2 in the morning. The cabin crew would be fairly quiet for most of the service, many people would be snoozing an hour or so after departure.

The train service from LGW will still run, so if you wanted to stay in town then best choose a hotel walking distance from Victoria Station. Personally, however, I would stay at one of the LGW hotels and then go directly to :LHR the next morning, either on the National Express or by rail, it's just a lot easier and with a lot more services. A midday service from LHR suggest leaving Gatwick at around 09:00 hrs or so, so a near reasonable sleep time. However of all the things that could change, the most likely would be the precise timing of these flights.

BAeuro

As corporate-wage-slave says, Dalaman is not traditionally served before late March and after October, simply as the demand isn’t there. Of course there is some give and take but I can’t see it be expanded to Nov-Mar.

I know you say you’re happy to do the LHR-LGW change, but there is a LHR-DLM flight on a Saturday. The timings don’t work for connections but you could stay overnight at a LHR hotel if that works for you.

aztimm

Thanks for all of the info!

The LHR-DLM flights must not be loaded in the BA system yet. I've been toying around on the BA website, and the only option showing is LGW-DLM.

In past years, to the London-DLM flights usually fill? I'm wondering how far out to book for mid-September travel.

corporate-wage-slave

In previous years you could safely leave it to 2 months before departure and probably not risk overpaying. Mid September is when the kids go back to school and area is a good one for younger families, being good value and child friendly. But I think this year is going to be something very different. One scenario - among dozens - is that the market for holiday flights will open up later than usual, and perhaps for selected countries. As things stand, Turkey is reasonably well placed to be on any green list. along with Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, perhaps. But this could change very quickly. If things open late then I suspect people will want holidays in places like DLM, and perhaps later on than usual. Equally there are some people who are very wary of travelling anywhere at the moment, and may need a year or two before they are ready. Who knows.

BA probably wouldn't transfer LGW services to LHR until later on, it's tied in with slot politics. I wouldn't hang off booking for that aspect, you would be able to transfer bookings very easily from LGW to LHR.

Speedbird676

As somebody who spends Christmas near Dalaman every year, whilst I would love to see a direct winter flight I can't see it happening. TK were planning to fly direct LGW-DLM for a short period over Christmas 2020 but COVID put pay to that.

ISTFlyer

When Thomas Cook was alive, they offered flights to DLM from Gatwick and Manchester during the Christmas season.
If I'm not wrong, if COVID-19 wasn't with us, Jet2 and Easyjet were also operating seasonal Christmas season flights ( don't recall from which LON airport ).

When COVID-19 is gone, BA wouldn't budge to use one of their Heathrow slots for this route during Christmas, though LCC's would definitely fly.

aztimm

Thanks again for your insight CWS!

I booked a SwimTrek for mid-September; they only require a 20% deposit, and have a very generous policy if I decide that I can't go. Anyway, the dates do work for when the BA LGW-DLM flight is scheduled to operate, which is what I had intended.

That said, I'll hold off booking for another month or so and see if/how things change. I was browsing through some other threads in this forum and just today on BBC they pointed out how there really aren't many flights at all from LGW. I'd be happy if the service ran LHR-DLM, as it would make the trip much less effort for me. But with the coach service between airports (and enough time), it won't be horrible if I had to change airports.

Speedbird676

Yes, I flew TCX in 2018 and vowed never again. They didn't exist the following year so avoiding them was easy.