British Airways (BA) is planning to add an extra weekday flight to its London Gatwick to Jersey route in time for summer 2014.
With the additional service on the route, BA would be offering six flights on weekdays. The extra daily flight will add an extra 650 seats a week.
Set to begin in March next year, British Airways’ extra weekday flight between Jersey and London Gatwick will be operational when Flybe discards the route in March. Flybe, which has agreed to sell its Gatwick slots to Easyjet, is the only other carrier on the route presently, and will stop the service by March 29, 2014.
It is ‘excellent news’ for the island, says Doug Bannister, Group CEO for Port of Jersey. BA operates the route with a combination of Airbus A319s and Boeing 737s.
Colm Lacy, BA’s head of commercial at Gatwick, said: ‘British Airways first started flying to Jersey nearly 80 years ago so it’s great news that we are increasing frequency by offering our customers up to six flights a day with our new additional service.
This conveniently timed sixth flight will significantly boost our schedule to give customers added flexibility, improved connection times to onward flights into Europe and a greater choice of departures.’
The airline started operating the route in 1934 as Jersey Airways, a subsidiary of British European Airways, which later became part of British Airways. The first flights landed on the beach, until an airfield and terminal opened in 1937.
Earlier last week, BA also said that it was increasing its service from London City Airport with additional flights to Stockholm and Madrid this winter.
