British Airways Adds More Routes Between the UK & North America

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Historically BA has had things pretty much its own way out of the UK and that probably goes a long way to explaining why the airline has found it so easy to rest on its laurels and decline to the state it’s now in. Now, however, there’s another airline on the block and it’s aiming it’s sights straight at the UK flag carrier.

Norwegian has undoubtably rattled BA’s cage by opening up multiple routes to the US out of London’s Gatwick Airport and even going after BA on routes where BA has been used to having a monopoly….like the London – Buenos Aires route for example.

Put simply, British Airways suddenly finds itself in a battle I don’t think it was expecting…..but recently the airline has been showing signs that it wants to fight back.

Earlier this year BA opened up a new route between Gatwick and Oakland which was a direct challenge to Norwegian who already operates this route and we’ve also had an announcement of a new route to Nashville and a route to Ft. Lauderdale.

Now it would appear that BA is ready to add to its North America routes once again (albeit only for the summer season).

British Airways Adds Toronto & Las Vegas To Gatwick Routes

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From 1 May 2018 British Airways will fly between London Gatwick and Toronto 3x/week on ther following schedule:

BA2271 LGW 11:55 – 14:45 YYZ (Tue, Fri & Sun)
BA2270 YYZ 19:45 – 07:50+1 day LGW (Tue, Fri & Sun)

The route is set to be operated by a Boeing 777 aircraft.

From 27 March 2018 British Airways is bringing back its Gatwick – Las Vegas route for the summer season on the following schedule:

BA2277 LGW 11:50 – 14:40 LAS (Tue)
BA2277 LGW 11:55 – 14:45 LAS (Fri & Sun)

BA2276 LAS 16:30 – 10:30 LGW+1 day (Tue)
BA2276 LAS 16:35 – 10:35 LGW+1 day (Fri & Sun)

As with the Toronto route, British Airways will be flying a Boeing 777 between Gatwick & Las Vegas.

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The Aircraft & Award Availability

If the seat maps are to be believed the 777’s British Airways will be flying on these routes will offer:

  • 48 Club World (Business Class) seats
  • 24 World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy) seats
  • 203 World Traveller (Economy Class) seats

And, right now, there appears to be a lot of Business Class availability on both routes.

I can see 2 Club World seats on both the Las Vegas…..

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….and Toronto routes…..

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…on numerous dates for departures out of Gatwick but there seems to be a serious shortage of Premium Economy availability.

In the other direction (departures from Vegas and Toronto) the Club World availability isn’t quite so good….but it’s still definitely there:

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Like on the westbound flights there seems to be a lack of Premium Economy award availability here too….but there’s a chance that BA hasn’t quite finished loading all the reward flight inventory just yet.

Thoughts

A bonus for travelers on these new routes is that British Airways has new lounges at Gatwick following its terminal swap with easyJet less than a year ago (I reviewed the First Class lounge last month) and these are a significant improvement on what was offered before.

As far as the new routes go it’s pretty much good news. Any time an airline adds capacity to a route it can only be a positive thing for flyers – it puts pressure on prices and it often makes awards and upgrades easier to come by – so I’m very positive about this move by BA.

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As things stand, round trip Economy Class fares appear to be starting at around £428 and £673 to Toronto and Las Vegas respectively, Premium Economy fares are starting at around £896 and £1,131 and Business Class fares start at £2,273 and £1,830 (for departures from Gatwick).

I can’t honestly say that any of those fares jump out at me as being fantastic so I’d say the better option right now would be an Avios Club World redemption….especially if you can use a BA 2-4-1 voucher.

Images courtesy of British Airways

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