New Routes and Services
Services from London Gatwick Airport are constantly evolving. Some new routes and services announced for 2009/2010 including
New British Airways services from Gatwick Airport November 12 2009
British Airways is increasing the frequency of its flights to St Kitts and Nevis from March 2010 from one to two services a week due to ever increasing demand on the route since its launch in 2009.
From March the airline will commence flying to the popular Caribbean holiday island twice a week, departing from London Gatwick Airport on Saturdays and Tuesdays.
Holidays in St Kitts and Nevis have long been a secret favourite with the British public, with many Brits owning second homes on the islands allowing them to sunbathe on the pristine sandy beaches or swim and dive in the sleepy lagoons, while adventure seekers go exploring the 17th-century Brimstone Hill fortress or enjoy a wildlife-rich rainforest safari.
The twice weekly St Kitts flights and Nevis flights will be operated by Boeing 777 aircraft with a three-class configuration: World Traveller, World Traveller Plus and Club World.
This will be great news for anyone looking for the tranquillity which the enchanting island of Nevis known as 'Queen of the Caribees' provides. Eco-friendly Nevis hosted the first geothermal conference in the Caribbean in June 2009 and is leading the way with its renowned Green Energy Programme. The island aims to be powered 100% self sufficiently with renewable geothermal energy and plans to sell its excess electricity to neighbouring islands such as St Kitts.
Gatwick Airport service to Montego Bay welcomed October 31 2009
British Airways (BA) made its inaugural non-stop flight from London's Gatwick Airport to Montego Bay, with 280 passengers on board, on Thursday (October 29).
The crew and passengers of the airline were met at the Sangster International Airport by a welcoming team, led by Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett, and several representatives from the tourism fraternity.
The airline will operate twice-weekly flights to Montego Bay on Thursdays and Saturdays, with a three-class Boeing 777 aircraft. This brings British Airways service to Jamaica to five-weekly, augmenting the existing three-weekly flights to Kingston from London Gatwick.
In addressing participants at a ceremony at the airport to welcome passengers and crew members of the flight, the Minister of Tourism said that the entire sector was pleased that Montego Bay was once again the recipient of British Airways services. The airline had stopped flying to Montego Bay some seven years ago.
"British Airways has great and delightful memories of the past, when Montego Bay was a favourite port of call and, indeed, Montego Bay is delighted today that those happy days are going to come back," Mr. Bartlett said.
"This is really what we want, inaugural flights to be full, because when inaugural flights are full, it holds vistas of continued capacity and it also increases the options of increased rotations so, instead of two flights per week, we could have four or six," he pointed out.
He expressed the hope that the tourism marketing strategies will see growth and expansion in the European market, and into western and continental Europe and eventually penetrating eastern Europe.
"With your one world connectivity, you are ideally placed to ensure that anywhere in Europe that we go, they can get to Jamaica by British Airways and, more delightfully for us, is that Montego Bay will be now a port of premier attention," he applauded.
New Canary Island services from Gatwick Airport October 21 2009
Monarch has announced new services from the UK to the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria.
Beginning today (October 20th), the airline will operate routes from Birmingham Airport, London Gatwick Airport, Manchester airport, while Fuerteventura will also be served by Luton.
The move takes the carrier to a total number of 15 routes from the UK.
Liz Savage, managing director of Monarch flights and holidays, said that the new flights "will operate in addition to our existing routes to Tenerife and Lanzarote" and that the airline has been "overwhelmed with how well these new services have been received, with 35,000 advanced bookings already taken".
Monarch has recorded a rise in popularity of its mid-haul destinations this year, taking 61 per cent more holidaymakers to Lanzarote last month than in September 2008.
Its new routes to Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura will run on Mondays and Wednesdays respectively.
British Airways is launching its thrice-weekly direct non-stop services from Gatwick Airport to Sharm El Sheikh from October 26, 2009.
This signifies a return for the airline’s colours to this popular Red Sea resort, with the new direct non-stop London Gatwick flights to Sharm El Sheikh departing on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
As well as the new flights to Sharm El Sheikh, British Airways will also be adding The Maldives to its already extensive network. Richard Tams, British Airways' head of UK & Ireland sales, said: "These new routes will be great assets to the BA network and a real winner with customers. They are both perfect holiday destinations, known for their great beaches and fantastic diving. We're particularly pleased to be serving a completely new destination, the Maldives, and returning to Sharm El Sheikh. We expect both routes to perform well."
All of the new Sharm El Sheikh flights will be operated by Boeing 777 aircraft with a three-class configuration: World Traveller, World Traveller Plus and Club World.
- Maldives flights from Gatwick Airport soon to begin September 29 2009
British Airways new services from Gatwick Airport to Male in Maldives will start on October 25. This new service will fly three times a week , on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays.
- Dutch airline Transavia is introducing anew route between London Gatwick Airport and Rotterdam. The tickets will begin selling this week, flights are scheduled to begin from the first week of November. The Dutch city of Rotterdam, which is a popular leisure and business destination with UK travellers in itself, is also located at a convenient distance from both Amsterdam and the Hague.Transavia, which is Holland’s low cost airline, is offering this route at £46 each way. The fare will include taxes and surcharges. The Dutch airline will operate these flights from London’s Gatwick airport.The airline plans to initally have twice daily flights on weekdays, but one daily connection at weekends. The new links from Gatwick airport will replace the airline’s existing Rotterdam link from London Luton airport. London Gatwick Airport is where Transavia offered its first non-charter services all of 23 years ago.
Flights are scheduled to depart from London Gatwick airport at 07:55 and 20:50 and from Rotterdam at 07:20 and 20:15 every week day. The airline says these should be convenient timings for both leisure and business travellers, and hopes the new route will replicate the success the airline had when it operated out of London Luton.
- Aer Lingus has launched its first winter route from Gatwick Airport, with flights to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, getting underway today (September 15th).
The new route, which provides access to the destination that was voted the European Capital of Culture for 2009, was officially declared open by Lithuanian ambassador Dr Oskaras Jusys.
Aer Lingus' connection to Vilnius is one of six new routes that the airline will be launching from Gatwick Airport over the winter period.
Enda Corneille, the carrier's corporate affairs director, said that the next few months will represent "an exciting time for Aer Lingus".
He added: "For the 42 million Brits who opted for a staycation this summer, these flights will bring back the excitement factor of flying abroad and waving goodbye to the daily grind.
"With a bleak winter predicted, finding something to look forward to during the dark winter moments is vital."
From October 25th, Aer Lingus' operations from London Gatwick Airport will provide passengers with flights to 13 European destinations, including Malaga, Faro, Munich, Vienna and Bucharest.
- Ryanair adds new flight from Gatwick Airport to Stockholm Skavsta
Ryannair will be adding a winter flight to Stockholm Skavsta, with daily departures until the end of March 2010.
- British Airways has announced that from winter 2009 it will stop flights from London Gatwick Airport to Alicante, Barcelona,Malta, Madrid, Palma and Krakow.
- British Airways is moving flights to Pisa, Malaga and Gibraltar from London Gatwick Airport to Heathrow in the winter of 2009.
- It's not all bad news for London Gatwick Airport, as British Airways is increasing the frequency of flights to Bermuda, Barbados, port of Spain and St Lucia, and are introducing new flights toSharm El Sheikh, Innsbruck, Male, Punta Cana and Montego Bay.
- Air Malta has announced that it is increasing 2009/2010 winter services to Malta. From 1 November 2009 to March 2010, Air Malta will operate 9 flights per week from London Gatwick Airport, with extra flights during the Christmas period.
The summer 2010 schedule will also see an increase in flights.
Brock Friesen of Air Malta said: "Gatwick airport is one of the most attractive London airports vis-a-vis leisure short break traffic that requires frequent and convenient schedules. Air Malta is committed to offer both all year round."
- easyJet today announced its 2009/10 winter schedule, including 15 new routes across Europe.
Included in the schedule are new routes from London Gatwick Airport to Hamburg and Porto.
Andy Harrison, easyJet’s chief executive, said:
“We are delighted to be announcing even more new routes from the UK and across Europe. Times are tough for consumers, so we are proud to offer great year round holiday opportunities in fantastic places such as Paphos, Fuerteventura & Sharm El Sheikh for incredibly low prices. easyJet is clearly the best choice for sun seekers, city breakers and business travellers alike.”
- FlyBe has commenced its flights from London Gatwick Airport to Leeds Bradford, replaciong bmi, who gave up the route in March of this year.
“Our ticket sales have exceeded initial forecasts and I’m delighted to report strong demand on this key route that is of great strategic importance,” said Mike Rutter, chief commercial officer for Flybe.
- British Airways will launch twice-a-week flights from London Gatwick Airport to Montego Bay in Jamaica and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic in October 2009.
British Airways said it also would raise the number of flights to other favourite destinations in the Caribbean – the number of services from London’s Gatwick Airport to the island of St Lucia will go up from 3 flights a week to 5 flights a week; the weekly flights to Barbados will increase from 9 to 10; and the flights to Port of Spain (Trinidad) from 3 flights a week to 5 flights a week.
- British Airways has announced that it is cutting its summer 2010 service from London Gatwick Airport to Ibiza.
- Aer Lingus announced new routes from London Gatwick Airport, its first hub outside Ireland, including Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania.
“The Aer Lingus decision to launch direct flights to Vilnius is great news. This year is very special for Vilnius and Lithuania. We celebrate the Millennium anniversary of the first mention of Lithuania’s name in a historical source and Vilnius is the European Capital of Culture. The new convenient and competitively priced flights will definitely help to attract more tourists from the UK.” – states Augusta Jaudegyte, the Director of Lithuanian National Tourism Office in the UK.
Direct flights to Vilnius will commence on 10th September, 3 times a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). Daily flights start on 24th October. Aer Lingus already operates flights from Dublin
- EasyJet has also announced a twice weekly service from London Gatwick airport to Agadir, in southern Morocco, starting in November 2009.
- Mexicana Airlines has introced non-stop services from Mexico City to London Gatwick Airport
- Aer Lingus is setting up a base at London Gatwick Airport, with flights to Nice, Munich,Vienna and Zurich.
- Flybe will add flights from London Gatwick Airport to Dusseldorf from June 2009
- EasyJet is expanding its Summer 2009 services, with extra flights from London Gatwick Airport to Croatia,Cyprus,Italy and Greece
- British Airways has announced a new route from London Gatwick Airport to Las Vegas, USA.
- EasyJet has also launched a new service from London Gatwick Airport to Copenhagen
- Norweigan is adding flights to Oslo,Copenhagen,Aalborg,Bergen Stavangar and Tromso from its expanded London Gatwick Airport base.