Tobias-UK

British Airways has announced it will be adding another two new transatlantic routes to its summer 2018 schedule at Gatwick. Toronto in Canada, will be taking to the air from May 1, with three flights per week, and Las Vegas will be returning with three flights a week from March 27 next year.

The new flight to Toronto will be British Airways’ first flight to Canada from Gatwick, and follows the recent introduction of new long-haul routes to Oakland and Fort Lauderdale in the US.

The Las Vegas route, which already operates from Heathrow, is in such high demand that the airline will now offer a service from the two biggest London airports to give customers access to a greater number of seats and a choice of departure airports.

The additional two destinations takes the number of new routes introduced at Gatwick in 2017 to six and the total number of routes flying from Gatwick to 71, 24 of them long-haul and 47 short-haul.

Sean Doyle, British Airways’ director of networks and alliances, said: “Gatwick has always offered a great range of long-haul destinations, but adding Toronto and Las Vegas to the summer schedule will take the number of transatlantic routes to 21, making Canada, the US and the Caribbean more accessible than ever before.

“It’s particularly exciting to be adding Canada to the list of places our customers will be able to explore from Gatwick, and we look forward to welcoming our Canadian customers in to London.”

Summer 2018 fares on the Toronto flights in World Traveller will start from £453 return and fares to Las Vegas from Gatwick will start from £699 return, including taxes and charges.

British Airways Customers travelling from Gatwick will benefit from British Airways’ modern facilities at Gatwick’s south terminal, after the airline moved in at the start of the year.

Those travelling in Club World will also have access to a sophisticated new lounge area at Gatwick, which opened in spring as part of the airline’s multi-million pound investment to benefit its customers with a focus on excellence in the premium cabins and more choice and quality for all.

British Airways has launched its multi-million pound investment plan to benefit its customers with a focus on excellence in the premium cabins and more choice and quality for all.

Four hundred million pounds will be spent on Club World with an emphasis on improved catering and sleep, and a new seat in the future. At Heathrow a First Wing check-in area with direct security and lounge access has launched, and lounges around the airline’s network are to be revamped and improved. The Club Europe cabin has also been introduced on UK domestic services and all customers can look forward to the latest generation Wi-Fi across British Airways’ long-haul and short-haul fleets over the next two years.

Since 2012, British Airways has begun Gatwick services to Cape Town, Fort Lauderdale, New York, Oakland, Lima, Punta Cana, San Jose (Costa Rica), Lanzarote, Alicante, Barcelona, Cagliari, Dalaman, Friedrichschafen, Funchal, Fuerteventura, Grenoble, Heraklion, Larnaca, Limoges, Malta, Porto, Rhodes, Seville, Tenerife, Vienna and Valencia. Gatwick will also introduce a new flight to Nuremburg this winter.

BA Holidays packages:

Toronto - British Airways Holidays offers three nights at the 3* Novotel Toronto Mississauga Cntr, from £499 per person, travelling May 1 - May 31. Includes World Traveller return flights from London Gatwick and accommodation. Book by September 26. For reservations visit ba.com/toronto or call 0344 493 0122.

Las Vegas - British Airways Holidays offers five nights at the 3* Excalibur, from £739 per person, travelling April 1 - April 30. Includes World Traveller return flights from London Gatwick and accommodation. Book by September 26. For reservations visit ba.com/las-vegas or call 0344 493 0122.

ajeleonard

I hadn't even noticed they'd dropped Gatwick-Vegas before now re-announcing it

corporate-wage-slave

Very good news, thanks for sharing it here. Moving to South was the best thing to happen to BA in Gatwick in recent years, in my view.

Tobias-UK

It ended in 2015 (IIRC). At the same time BA increased capacity from LHR by introducing a second B747 service 4/5 times a week.

MPH1980

Interesting. I'm presuming the YYZ service is down to the fact they have a third slot in the summer and aren't making use of it (or haven't in the last couple of summers).

Frankly - it's pushed up the YYZ fares something chronic for WTP so hopefully the LGW service will help bring it down again.

Ldnn1

And/or pre-empting potential route launch by Norwegian perhaps?

MPH1980

Possibly.

The bit I'm not sure I get is that so much of the YYZ WT traffic is connecting to/from India.

Not sure I see that LGW can capture much of that.

But then perhaps, they are anticipating the desire of people to get the cheapest fares, and allowing for things like Google Flights being able to do 'separate tickets' fare calculations, even if it does mean a change of airport.

darthlemsip

Westjet have launched YYZ-LGW, so could be in response to that

Gomac

Are these just 3 class services or will there be F?

albpenny

anyone know the aircraft type that will be used?

bhbloke

So as well as experiencing the worst 747's on the fleet from LHR, you can now experience the worst 777's on the fleet from LGW.

BA must really hate LAS !

PS I'm glossing over the 777 planned refurbs otherwise my observation doesn't work!

corporate-wage-slave

Almost certainly the 777-200 fleet it currently has, there is only one longhaul aircraft type available to BA at LGW at the moment. There are 3 main variants (one with a First cabin), and some (all?) will be refitted next year but that's all LGW has got for the time being.

skipness1E

All B777s

chris1979

gosh, they better be refurbishing those 777 birds quick though if they are planning on doing more.

a "friend of mine", let's call him chris1980 given his youthful looks, recently flew FLL - LGW and even 9 abreast, it was a league (if not a league and a half) below AA's 10-abreast 777 to MIA on the outbound.
for comparison purposes, to be fair, he was in MCE but even without the 38 inches legroom, IFE on AA was fantastic, seat very comfy (sliding forward when reclined), in-seat power, service was good (large cans of diet coke, ice cream mid flight) - whilst BA's 777 looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the 90s, crew were about as unengaged and unfriendly as it gets (he asked for water with the meal and crew merely pointed at that plastic cup of water in the tea cup). needless to say, no power outlets with BA and the screens were tiny and unresponsive.
So if though the refurb will bring 10 abreast about, it can't get worse......

interesting to see if they are planning on other routes ex LGW. Norwegian's new JFK service leaving before 6am looks very interesting.

Happy Wednesday.

Tobias-UK

I suspect there will be no First on the LAS route, it was a 3-class offering last time. I wonder if this will affect the LHR frequency?