In this post:
Full BA short-haul Heathrow route schedule for August
Yesterday I wrote about the routes that BA are resuming for August. There are now 101 European routes out of London (includes domestic). If you are after tier points, you may wish to look at Catania in Sicily. The nearby resort of Taormina is beautiful and upmarket. Catania gets 160 tier points return in Club. You can read my guide to Catania and the surrounding areas here.
If you are looking for inspiration about where to go, here is the full list of routes from Heathrow:
Domestic
London Heathrow – Aberdeen 10 weekly
London Heathrow – Belfast City 9 weekly
London Heathrow – Edinburgh 17 weekly
London Heathrow – Glasgow 14 weekly
London Heathrow – Inverness 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Jersey 18 weekly
London Heathrow – Manchester 7 weekly
London Heathrow – Newcastle 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Newquay 5 weekly
Europe
London Heathrow – Alicante 11 weekly
London Heathrow – Amsterdam 17 weekly
London Heathrow – Athens 35 weekly
London Heathrow – Barcelona 18 weekly
London Heathrow – Bari 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Basel/Mulhouse 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Bastia 1 weekly
London Heathrow – Berlin Tegel 17 weekly
London Heathrow – Bilbao 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Billund 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Bodrum 1 weekly
London Heathrow – Bologna 12 weekly
London Heathrow – Bordeaux 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Brindisi 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Brussels 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Bucharest 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Budapest 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Cagliari 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Catania 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Chania 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Copenhagen 10 weekly
London Heathrow – Corfu 14 weekly
London Heathrow – Dalaman 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Dublin 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Dubrovnik 7 weekly
London Heathrow – Dusseldorf 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Faro 19 weekly
London Heathrow – Figari 1 weekly
London Heathrow – Frankfurt 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Funchal 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Geneva 10 weekly
London Heathrow – Genoa 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Gibraltar 12 weekly
London Heathrow – Gothenburg 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Hamburg 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Hannover 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Ibiza 21 weekly
London Heathrow – Irakleion 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Istanbul 7 weekly
London Heathrow – Kalamata 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Kefallinia 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Kos 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Krakow 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Lanzarote 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Larnaca 13-21 weekly
London Heathrow – Lisbon 13-21 weekly
London Heathrow – Luxembourg 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Lyon 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Madrid 12 weekly
London Heathrow – Mahon 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Malaga 25 weekly
London Heathrow – Malta 2 weekly
London Heathrow – Marseille 12 weekly
London Heathrow – Milan Malpensa 21 weekly
London Heathrow – Moscow Domodedovo 2 weekly
London Heathrow – Munich 9 weekly
London Heathrow – Mykonos 8 weekly
London Heathrow – Naples 10 weekly
London Heathrow – Nice 33 weekly
London Heathrow – Olbia 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Oslo 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Palermo 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Palma Mallorca 22 weekly
London Heathrow – Paphos 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Paris CDG 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Pisa 11 weekly
London Heathrow – Porto 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Prague 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Preveza 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Prishtina 1 weekly
London Heathrow – Pula 2 weekly
London Heathrow – Reykjavik Keflavik 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Rhodes 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Rome 19 weekly
London Heathrow – Seville 2 weekly
London Heathrow – Sofia 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Split 9 weekly
London Heathrow – Stockholm Arlanda 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Tenerife South 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Thira 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Tirana 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Toulouse 10 weekly
London Heathrow – Turin 4 weekly
London Heathrow – Valencia 5 weekly
London Heathrow – Venice 14 weekly
London Heathrow – Verona 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Vienna 3 weekly
London Heathrow – Warsaw 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Zagreb 6 weekly
London Heathrow – Zakynthos 2 weekly
London Heathrow – Zurich 8 weekly
Obviously some of the routes require 14-day quarantine on return or are subject to advice from the FCO not to travel unless essential. You can see our table of which destination you can go to without restrictions here.
HT: Routes online
BA pilots vote to accept pay deal
Pilots in British Airways have voted to accept the deal negotiated by BALPA in response to BA’s formal notification of 1255 pilot job losses and the proposal to fire and rehire the remaining pilots on worse conditions. The deal means that there will be temporary 20% pay cuts reducing to 8% over two years and towards zero over the longer term. There will still be some compulsory redundancies which are currently estimated to be 270 although that number will fall as mitigations take effect. There will be no fire and rehire of pilots.
BALPA General Secretary Brian Strutton said “Our members have made a pragmatic decision in the circumstances but the fact that we were unable to persuade BA to avoid all compulsory redundancies is bitterly disappointing.”
The ballot result was 85% to accept the deal on an 87% turnout. British Airways employs 4300 pilots.
BA cabin crew’s Unite union in last-ditch attempt to stop strike
This Fridays is being dubbed Black Friday by some BA cabin crew, as it is believed to be the date that a deal needs to be agreed to save as many jobs as possible and keep the current terms and pay. British Airways has understandably been trying to reduce the three cabin crew fleets into one at Heathrow. This has meant the proposal that some of the better-paid legacy World Wide and Eurofleet Crew would have to take a substantial pay cut as well as changes to terms and conditions. The current BA proposal would have meant that legacy crew would take a maximum of 20% salary cut, but this could result in up to 30% of their take-home pay due to their allowances which make up a substantial part of their take-home pay. The difference between this deal and the pilots is that the BALPA deal is temporary for two years. The union’s leader, Len McClusky, has now said that they would accept the 20% pay reduction if they matched the pilot’s deal and it was only for a maximum of two years. World Wide and Eurofleet have also been offered voluntary redundancy packages.
Mr Clusky said:
“The reality is that the pilots were never faced with the drastic ‘fire and rehire’ strategy that is being imposed on the overwhelming majority of the BA workforce.
“We have said all along that BA’s boardroom had a wider agenda, which was to use this pandemic crisis to drive down the terms and conditions of crew and staff, with some losing over £20,000 from their salary, as part of a long-term ambition to reposition BA as a low-cost airline in all but name.
“The damage that this is doing to UK aviation and the distress this is causing the workforce are made worse by choices of the airline’s bosses, choices that remind us all that it is not in the dire straits it claims.
“The purchase of another airline, Air Europa, the assistance package to support the staff and operations of Iberia and Aer Lingus, and now this deal with the pilots all show that BA can take a longer-term view about the recovery of the business when it chooses to.
“Yet it has chosen to go to war with some of the lowest-paid and most dedicated staff it employs, causing widespread revulsion among MPs and customers, trashing the airline’s brand and putting its access to lucrative slots at risk.
“BA is indulging in industrial thuggery. It should and could end this strife now.”
“I say to Willie Walsh, put the deal that you have agreed with pilots to the rest of the staff, and in doing so join with us as together we find a constructive and fair way through this crisis.”
Unite had threatened to immediately initiate a vote for industrial action if a solution could not be found. Hopefully, they will find some common ground. Many of BA’s legacy crew are due to retire within 5 years so the higher paid crew will naturally phase-out of the company eventually. At least both sides seem closer in terms of what they are asking for. I have sympathy for the crew, particularly for those that will lose their jobs. The UK government needs to look more closely at ways to help the travel industry such as regional travel corridors rather by country or testing.
