Why LGW? Blah
 

It takes 30 minutes. By contrast, the Heathrow Express takes 15 minutes.

For Uber, a ride from Westminster to Gatwick is between £65 ($84) and £87 ($113). To Heathrow, Uber is between £30 ($39) and £40 ($52).

Not everyone is leaving London from Westminster. Gatwick is a viable airport, as its count of 46 million passengers last year (as big as Newark) and 2.8 million non-stop passengers to the U.S. (as big as Dubai) do attest.

Unless I'm connecting through, I prefer LGW as it leaves me closer to where I usually stay and the train access is now an added bonus.

1. Because someone has a need to be somewhere else in the UK besides London (yes, there is more to the UK than London). LGW to Brighton is 30 minutes. LHR to Brighton is 1 hour on the tube, connection time at VIC, and 1 hour on Southern - total travel time well over 2 hours. LGW has a mainline rail station, opening up the rest of the UK, even north.

2. There are other options for LGW-London. Southern and Thameslink operate services for less ₤₤. They make a couple of stops, but only add about 5 minutes to the journey time.

3. HEX is the creation of savvy marketers. Yes, it gets you from LHR to PAD in 15 minutes journey time, but then what? Unless your business is at the Paddington Hilton, you have to take at least one (or more) tube lines to get anywhere else. For my journey to Brighton, it would be HEX from LHR to PAD, tube from PAD to VIC, then Southern from VIC to BTN. I've spent more money but haven't shortened my journey by any significant amount.

4. DL is bothering with this route because they perceive (correctly or incorrectly, only time will tell) that there is $$ to be made. It truly is just that simple.

I think B6 might have to settle for LGW, but they wrote several memos to the DOT attacking DL/VS as well as BA/AA and demanding remedy slots be given to them at LHR...that is a prime reason I suspect DL announced the LGW flights...just as a thumb in B6's eye.

Onward connections or not, I really don't think that's the play for B6.

I think they could be much more disruptive in the domestic market because by getting all of those slots at JFK, LAX, SFO, and BOS they were in a prime position to increase capacity and drive down fares and change fare rules. B6 could add more flights to JFK and BOS than anyone. to LON whether LGW or LHR, they just aren't going to have the same advantages being able to just flood the market with capacity to drive fares down and rely on their lower costs to keep them going. Plus LON, the base fare could be $3 and the ticket is already practically $1,000 with all the taxes further limiting B6's ability to drive fares down.

And I'm not sure how much but I'm willing to bet at least 60% of the J traffic between NYC and LON is connected in some way to a corporate contract. Unless LON is virtually their only international destination I don't know how viable B6 is going to do in London as both DL/VS and AA/BA are going to go to the mattresses for it.

I think they would be much better off if they want to focus on high end leisure, looking on JFK/BOS to DUB, SNN, EDI, KEF and get their feet wet internationally taking on some routes that aren't as heavily defended. Because if there is a stumble, which there is highly likely to be when entering an entirely new market, many people with the $$$ for the front of the cabin might be scared off to already well established carriers.

That's a bit of exaggeration that is unhelpful here. A $378 coach ticket BOS-LHR-BOS (sold by Delta, actually) has $228 in U.S., UK and London airport taxes and fees.

From ITA Matrix:

US International Departure Tax (US)$37.20
US September 11th Security Fee (AY)$5.60US
Passenger Facility Charge (XF)$4.50
United Kingdom Air Passenger Duty APD (GB)$102.40
United Kingdom Passenger Service Charge Departures (UB)$61.20
United States Immigration User Fee (XY)$7.00
United States Customs User Fee (YC)$5.77
United States APHIS Passenger Fee Passengers (XA)$3.96

Many people disagree. They think it's all about JetBlue. Time will tell. This is kind of important given that Delta hasn't said whether the Gatwick flights will be Delta-operated or Virgin Atlantic-operated.

Do we even know if it's more than one flight a day?

Distance from LHR to Paddington or LGW to Victoria is a ridiculous comparison. Nor are false comparisons of the costs of that trip helpful. Anyone paying £33 for the GEX to Victoria needs their head - and sense of priorities - examining.

You need to validly compare the distance to your end point and LGW is better placed for central and east London (and other places in the UK) than LHR.

There was a thread recently on the BA Board about why BA didn't operate flights from Jersey to LHR but did to LGW because "It's loaded with status passengers and those willing to pay for Club Europe so they should go to LHR because of that". The reason why is because the vast majority of passengers were headed to the finance houses in the City and LGW was quicker and easier for them to get to from LGW than LHR.

For arrivals, LGW has 7GBP for fast-track immigraiton, and take the train to London Bridge or Blackfriars instead of Victoria and avoid the Gatwick Express surcharge.

That said, I usually stay in Hammersmith so LHR is still more practical even after an interminable wait in immigration at T3. I've been going through T3 immigration for nearly 30 years (United, then American, now Virgin Atlantic) and it's been garbage almost every time.