BA boosts Gib routes with Gatwick summer flights

British Airways will use take-off and landing slots acquired following the collapse of Monarch to increase its London Gatwick flights to sunshine destinations this summer, including to Gibraltar.

The Gibraltar/Gatwick route will operate six times a week – daily except on Tuesday – and is in addition to 11 weekly flights from Heathrow during the summer months.

The Gatwick route will launch on May 28 and run through the summer to September 29.

Over 2,000 additional return seats will be offered per week, with a total of 37,000 seats for the period of operation.

“This is fantastic news for Gibraltar, with much needed capacity left behind by Monarch Airlines being filled up by British Airways,” said Gilbert Licudi, the Minister for Tourism and Commercial Aviation.

“London Gatwick is Gibraltar’s busiest route and these additional weekly services highlight the demand on this route, and will complement the British Airways existing London Heathrow services.”

“This shows British Airways confidence in the Gibraltar market.”

“In addition, with easyJet increasing capacity by upgrading to larger aircraft and the charter services from various UK regional departure points in the UK being offered by Super Break, this will undoubtedly boost the tourism industry as well as providing further vital links to major UK airports to all business and leisure travellers.”

BA announced the Gibraltar route as part of its biggest summer schedule from Gatwick airport in almost a decade, with around 1,150 weekly flights this year compared with 1,000 in 2017.

Weekly flights to Malaga will also be boosted from 27 to 35, as will flights to Alicante from 14 to 22 and Faro from 17 to 21.

BA's summer flights to Tenerife will increase from six per week to 13, while Madeira will go from six to nine and Lanzarote from three to five.

Chief executive Alex Cruz said: "We are delighted to be able to further grow our presence at Gatwick by adding extra frequencies and improving our timetable.”

"We are also introducing several new destinations to the Gatwick programme, including Palma (Majorca), Mahon (Menorca) and Gibraltar.”

"These exciting new routes give our customers even more choice of destinations at competitively low prices."

The collapse of Monarch, which was owned by private equity firm Greybull Capital, led to 1,858 workers being made redundant and the flights and holidays of about 860,000 people being cancelled.

Its slots at Gatwick and Luton were reportedly worth in the region of £60 million, with the latter obtained by Wizz Air.

Administrators KPMG won a court battle in November to be able to sell them.