LGWClosedAgain

Depending on the time of year we have 5-8 BA flights a day to Gatwick, will BA ever see the clear demand for Heathrow flights? Is it a gate issue with the CTA?

Just had to book JER-LGW/LHR-BNA-LHR/LGW-JER for my family and I am not looking forward to the usual mission of dragging 3 kids between Gatwick and Heathrow.

flatlander

Depends, are you all willing to pay the extra costs of LHR?

Sealink

I'd say yes. BA returned to Inverness and have upped the service, and if Guernsey can get a service to Heathrow it's only a matter of time, surely.

LGWClosedAgain

Considering it would save the cost of a taxi to Heathrow and a massive headache when travelling with the family, I'd say yes.

UKtravelbear

BA would have to move slot(s) from other routes to allow this to happen. I don't see that happening.

There might be the demand but unless BA (or any airline really) makes money they won't operate.

The flybe summer service is getting over Ł800k in subsidies from the Guernsey Government to operate the route and it is only for 7 months as the slot is needed by VS (who are the actual owners of it and are renting it out)

Business Traveller article

HIDDY

One has to assume BA would have done it by now if enough high revenue passengers were connecting on to their LHR long haul services.

LGWClosedAgain

Guernsey is about half the size of Jersey in terms of passenger numbers. I think Flybe is also operating a Jersey-Heathrow flight but that would then bring in some ticket related issues.

Guernsey-Gatwick 330K passengers in 2018

Jersey-Gatwick 670K passengers in 2018
​​​​​​Jersey-Luton 50K passengers in 2018
​​​​​​Jersey-London City 35K passengers in 2018
Total of 755K passengers to London airports.

For comparison, Inverness (The most recent new British Isles route IIRC) has the following stats:

Inverness-Gatwick 261K passengers in 2018
​​​​​​Inverness-Luton 147k passengers in 2018
​​​​​​Inverness-Heathrow 97K passengers in 2018
​​​​​​Total of 505K passengers to London airports.

T8191

My ba97 record says it was 2008 when BMI dropped the JER-LHR connection. We managed to use it just once to LHR, in May 08, before the route was dropped (got a prompt refund of the return ticket!), and we had to come home 3 weeks later with BA via LGW.

In the intervening 10 years nobody has tried to do it again. I suspect if it was going to be lucrative, and LHR slots were available/affordable, it would have happened by now. The GCI-LHR is, IMO, a false dawn as far as JER residents are concerned, and as UKtravelbear notes, it's a subsidised Summer service. Indeed, many services to the Islands are Summer-only, for inbound tourism purposes - that's when we can actually fly JER-DUB direct for a few months!

I have full sympathy for the OP. We've been doing the LGW/LHR shuffle for over 10 years, and agree it's a bloody great PITA!

Often1

The only comparison worth making is PRASM and that is a trade secret for any air carrier.

BA would operate an hourly A380 on the route (but for perhaps some logistical concerns on the ground at JER) if there were enough people prepared to pay enough.

Davidjonesk

mmogdan

My wife and I had great "fun" with the summer season weekly JER - MUC Lufthansa rotation last year. It allowed you to connect as a feeder flight onto the Lufthansa network. We were the only locals on the flights we took! Unfortunately this year, the flights are later in the afternoon, so reduces connection options - but, still possible!

flatlander

That's all of you using that route needing to pay the extra costs of Heathrow operations and a slot.

Are you confident that your fellow travellers are of the same mind as you?

I'm afraid that says little about revenues.

T8191

I’ll try to answer that sensitively ... where are the BAEC TPs in that, you idiot??!!

T8191

I’m not ganging up on the OP, but I have to say that we use LGW to connect far more than LHR. OK, that’s a personal/destination thing as leisure pax, but still valid. And ‘The Suits’ fly to LGW and LCY in great numbers, presumably doing their thing in London. I do wonder sometimes how many of those are then actually connecting to something from LHR ... very few, I suspect, especially when there are a fair number of l/h options from LGW all over the place (if not necessarily with BA).

It sounds a nice option, but I still can’t see it happening. Glad to be proved wrong, of course: I would use it at least once or twice a year. But, a proper OW connection direct to DUB or AMS or HEL would be nice too.

Fraser

Living in NYC and with a brother+niece on Jersey the LHR/LGW shuffle has long been a PITA. At last count I think I've made about 60 trips to Jersey since 2005...

The JFK-LGW service has made things a lot more convenient albeit with ropier 777s and obviously no First. From a purely selfish POV I'd really like to see LHR-JER myself too, and when I travel at hours well suited for business travel I quite often see others in both CE and CW/First/in the LHR lounges that are making the same or similar journeys. There has to be enough demand for at least an early morning JER-LHR and late evening LHR-JER for European feeder services.