NEWS: Watch out for BA special offer, British Airways no short haul flights at Gatwick until November and Orlando partially moves to Heathrow

In this post:

British Airways no short-haul flights at Gatwick until November

It was rumoured yesterday, but today it has been confirmed that no short-haul flights will operate from Gatwick until at least 9 November 2020. I am sure this could well be due to the recent government change in travel advice to Spain which is putting some people off travelling altogether, never mind to Spain.

Flights will move to Heathrow but it is not known yet whether all those routes will move. British Airways long haul flights resumed from Gatwick on 17 July.

BA had already announced some routes/flights will be suspended completely and not move to Heathrow. These routes are:

London Gatwick – Almeria – permanently suspended
London Gatwick – Antalya – suspended until summer 2021
London Gatwick – Corfu (BA operates service to/from London Heathrow)
London Gatwick – Gran Canaria/Las Palmas
London Gatwick – Lima
London Gatwick – Milan Bergamo (suspended until late October)
London Gatwick – New York JFK
London Gatwick – Nice (BA continues to operate to/from London Heathrow)
London Gatwick – Rome (BA continues to operate to/from London Heathrow)
London Gatwick – San Jose (Costa Rica)
London Gatwick – Toronto (BA continues to operate to/from London Heathrow)

BA’s current short-haul program for August is below, so I would expect similar for September and October but it could change for Spanish destinations:

Aberdeen – 16 x Weekly
Algiers – 3 x Weekly
Alicante – 13 x Weekly
Amsterdam – 17 x Weekly
Athens – 34 x Weekly
Barcelona – 39 x Weekly
Bari – 3 x Weekly
Basel – 6 x Weekly
Bastia – 1 x Weekly
Belfast City – 18 x Weekly
Berlin – 17 x Weekly
Bilbao – 6 x Weekly
Billund – 3 x Weekly
Bodrum – 1 x Weekly
Bologna – 12 x Weekly
Bordeaux – 5 x Weekly
Brindisi – 4 x Weekly
Brussels – Daily
Bucharest – 6 x Weekly
Budapest 8 x Weekly
Cagliari – 3 x Weekly
Catania – 4 x Weekly
Chania – 6 x Weekly
Corfu – 11 x Weekly
Copenhagen – 16 x Weekly
Dalaman – 5 x Weekly
Dublin – 17 x Weekly
Dubrovnik – Daily
Düsseldorf – 6 x Weekly
Edinburgh – 25 x Weekly
Faro – 19 x Weekly
Frankfurt – 5 x Weekly
Figari – 1 x Weekly
Funchal – 3 x Weekly
Geneva – 10 x Weekly
Genoa – 3 x Weekly
Gibraltar – 12 x Weekly
Glasgow – 19 x Weekly
Gothenburg – 6 x Weekly
Hamburg – 5 x Weekly
Hannover – 6 x Weekly
Heraklion – 5 x Weekly
Ibiza – 22 x Weekly
Inverness – 8 x Weekly
Istanbul – Daily
Jersey – 3 x Daily
Kalamata – 3 x Weekly
Kefalonia – 3 x Weekly
Kos – 3 x Weekly
Krakow – 5 x Weekly
Lanzarote – 3 x Weekly
Larnaca – 3 x Daily
Lisbon – 3 x Daily
Luxembourg – 6 x Weekly
Lyon – 5 x Weekly
Madrid – 17 x Weekly
Mahon – 5 x Weekly
Malaga – 25 x Weekly
Malta – 2 x Weekly
Manchester – 12 x Weekly
Marrakesh – 2 x Weekly
Marseille – 12 x Weekly
Milan Linate – 12 x Weekly
Milan Malpensa- 3 x Daily
Munich – 9 x Weekly
Mykonos – 8 x Weekly
Naples – 10 x Weekly
Newcastle – Daily
Newquay – 5 x Weekly
Nice – 26 x Weekly
Olbia – 5 x Weekly
Oslo – 8 x Weekly
Palermo – 5 x Weekly
Palma – 23 x Weekly
Paphos – 3 x Weekly
Paris – 14 x Weekly
Pisa – 11 x Weekly
Porto – 4 x Weekly
Prague – 10 x Weekly
Preveza – 4 x Weekly
Pristina – 1 x Weekly
Pula – 2 x Weekly
Reykjavik – 5 x Weekly
Rhodes – 4 x Weekly
Rome – 19 x Weekly
Salzburg – 2 x Weekly
Santorini – 6 x Weekly
Seville – 4 x Weekly
Sofia – Daily
Split – 9 x Weekly
Stockholm – 14 x Weekly
Tenerife – 6 x Weekly
Thessaloniki – 5 x Weekly
Toulouse – 10 x Weekly
Tirana – 5 x Weekly
Turin – 4 x Weekly
Valencia – 10 x Weekly
Venice – 2 x Daily
Verona – 6 x Weekly
Vienna – 5 x Weekly
Warsaw – 6 x Weekly
Zagreb – Daily
Zakynthos – 2 x Weekly
Zurich – 9 x Weekly

If you are due to fly on one of the routes that has moved, your ticket will automatically be changed to start from Heathrow. I would make sure you check this in Manage My Booking, as many flights may also change their departure times. You should get an official notification from British Airways. If you don’t wish to fly you have options as they have changed your departure airport so you should be able to get a refund or a voucher.

Personally I think it is unlikely that BA will move back to Gatwick for the winter which is traditionally a quieter period. I think this would only happen if there was a substantial change to the COVID situation that meant people were booking for travel again in large numbers.

Orlando partially moves to Heathrow

In a surprising move, British Airways has announced a year-round service from Heathrow to Orlando from 25 October 2020 which will be year-round. Whether we are actually allowed back into the US by then (or even want to go) is another matter.

The timetable is as follows:

London Heathrow to Orlando Departs 14:15 – Arrives 19:55
Orlando to Heathrow Departs 21:10 – Arrives 10:15+1

Additionally, flights from Gatwick will be running 3 times per week from 17 Nov 2020.