vectismanpaul

Gatwick to Orlando will be 13 weekly during the Summer 2023 season. Same frequency as pre-Covid.
Heathrow to Orlando has been removed from the schedule.

World Traveller Fuss

Looks like a slight increase in seats, but those A380s must be going elsewhere then. Or… they’re creating some slack in the schedule

gw76

I’ll wager YVR ex LGW will be a one hit (season) wonder…

World Traveller Fuss

Only if they return to summer A380s at Heathrow, or double frequency from there.

Otherwise that’s a huge loss of capacity from London (vs splitting one flight in two).

skipness1E

It's more the rather large initial leap in capacity that surprises me.

Only for BA, be interesting to see if Virgin perform better at LHR with Delta feeding from the US end. They're also launching LHR-Tampa, another traditonally "Gatwick only" route.

skipness1E

No delete option?

TedToToe

Yes, Y increases considerably from 303 seats to 436 and W from 55 to 88. Then, there is a corresponding reduction in F+J from 111 to 88. Looking at fares, a return in J out of LGW can be had for Ł600* per person less than the Club Suite option out of LHR. As has been said before, the Club World product suits families with children, who would likely be attracted by the lower fares. I think it’s a good move by BA, given WestJet’s presence in the market, and I hope it does well.

*the dates I checked were in June 2023.

sdmr

Or even just for point to point travel from Edinburgh to anywhere in the South East, south of the Thames

🙏🤞

vectismanpaul

I was only talking about BA as per thread title. As you said in an earlier post Virgin also have feed at Orlando from Delta. Not sure of the frequency of Virgin LHR to Orlando but during past summers they were up to 3 daily at Gatwick. I don’t think it is that frequent from LHR. With their relatively small slot pool portfolio at LHR I am not sure they would not want to commit 3 daily slot pairs the to route. BA are now back to pre-Covid capacity on that route.

vectismanpaul

As for Tampa I think Virgin will also need that feed from Delta plus work from Virgin Holidays. However for the moment BA seem content to rely on point to point mainly leisure and cruise traffic to Tampa from Gatwick. The lower cost of operating that flight from Gatwick with an aircraft that is probably paid got also helps.

bakera

it is, and typically we have just booked YVR from LHR and then they release much better flight times (to us) from LGW.

skipness1E

Point is that up til now, BA could move traffic between LHR and LGW as it chose as Virgin's beach fleet was wholly LGW based and so had no competitive advantage, now with Delta actively feeding UK bound traffic from Florida onto Virgin into LHR, that rather lazy and convenient dynamic has possibly gotten more competitive. Virgin was two (and very occasionaly three daily on some summer peak days) daily on LGW-MCO, current freq is two daily LHR-MCO on A350/A330 rather than B744. So same freq just a whole lot less Economy seats than a LGW B747-400. But BA can fight that by keeping it's loyal frequent flier base happy......

JP Flyer

I couldn’t agree more, LGW was my go to airport for getting into the City as I would hop onto the first available London Bridge or Blackfriars train and then it was a short walk to the BoE.

I’ve got to say that without that EDI connection I’m looking at this increased Gatwick schedule with a sense of loss as it means that I now have fewer LHR options that I could have used from here. Venice and Vancouver are semi-regular destinations for us and our best pals have just moved to Tampa so the loss of a connection means that we may have to consider going via AMS or using United and connecting in EWR.

I do wonder, however, if the lack of an EDI connection is in some way related to how awful the arrivals and connection process is? Gatwick is not a hub airport in that unlike most UK airports there is no airside transfer. Every arrival from EDI involved a bus which sometimes took as long as 45 minutes from aircraft to arrivals hall and then you had to go back through security. It is a bucket and spade brigade airport that targets the cost conscious holidaymakers of the South Coast.

vectismanpaul

Doesn’t really matter if it does. At least they will have given the route a go.

Raffles

Paphos added today.