British Airways has plans to consolidate its short-haul services within Europe to just one London airport. In such a case, this would leave Gatwick Airport without short-haul routes with British Airways, but the British airline is instead looking at starting a new low-cost airline based at London Gatwick Airport.
Over the years, several full-cost and flag airlines in Europe have started low-cost airlines to compete with other low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet. One of these full-cost airlines is British Airways, which between 1998 and 2002 had the low-cost airline Go Fly, and now the British full-cost airline has plans for a new low-cost airline according to Head for Points, which refers to an internal letter to British Airways staff.
In the letter, British Airways’ management, led by CEO Sean Doyle, says that they plan to establish a new subsidiary in the form of a low-cost company based in London Gatwick that will complement the company’s long-haul service from Gatwick. The new low-cost airline can come into service during the summer of 2022 and will fly on routes where there is high competition. The announcement that British Airways may start a new low-cost airline also means that it intends to stop flying from Gatwick Airport on short-haul routes and consolidate all this traffic at Heathrow, where the company’s hub is located. However, British Airways will retain some long-haul services at Gatwick.
According to CNN Business, British Airways is currently working on proposals with unions for the establishment of a new subsidiary at Gatwick Airport, located south of London. Gatwick currently has traffic with several low-cost airlines such as easyJet, Norwegian, Ryanair and Wizz Air and both easyJet and Wizz Air have bases at the airport. The competition from, among others, these low-cost airlines is something that makes British Airways’ management see its own new low-cost airline as important in order to be able to compete for passengers.
(Photo: Morten Amundsen)
Credit: Simon Ericson & Flyg24Nyheter
Original article (SE): https://flyg24nyheter.com/2021/09/10/british-airways-kan-starta-nytt-lagprisbolag/
