Tag Archives: london gatwick airport

Emirates to become the first Airbus A380 operator at London’s Gatwick Airport

Emirates (Dubai) will become the first airline to operate a regularly scheduled service to London Gatwick airport with an Airbus A380.

Starting March 30, 2014, the airline’s 489-seat A380 will replace the Boeing 777-300 ER on EK flight 09/10, bringing a 36 percent increase in capacity on one of its three daily flights.

Emirates will start operating scheduled A380 services to Zurich and Barcelona from January and February 2014 respectively.

Flight EK 009 will depart Dubai at 1500 (3 pm) and arrive at London Gatwick Airport at 1930 (7:30 pm). The return flight, EK 010, will leave London Gatwick at 2115 (9:15 pm) and arrive in Dubai at 0720 (7:20 am) the next day.

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A380-861 A6-EDH (msn 025) taxies at Amsterdam with special Expo 2020 Dubai UAE markings.

Emirates:

EasyJet to fly to Tel Aviv from London Gatwick

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) has announced that it plans a third route between the UK and Tel Aviv. The airline, which already flies to the city from Manchester Airport and London Luton Airport, will start services from London Gatwick Airport from April 1, 2014. The new route will operate three days a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

EasyJet started flying to Tel Aviv in November 2009 from London Luton Airport. Across Europe the airline currently serves Tel Aviv from London Luton and Manchester as well as Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg, Geneva and Rome.

The airline has recently announced a Berlin – Tel Aviv route which is the first since the signing of the Open skies agreement between the EU and Israel. In the past twelve months easyJet has flown more than 330,000 passengers into and out of Tel Aviv, 190,000 of those flew to and from the UK and next year this is set to increase further.

EasyJet has also increased its flights between Manchester and Tel Aviv from two to three per week between February 17, 2014 and April 28, 2014.

EasyJet (UK):

Aurigny signs a contract for a single Embraer 195

Aurigny Air Services (Guernsey) has signed a firm contract with Embraer Commercial Aviation for one ERJ 195 jet. The transaction was announced today at a press briefing in Salzburg at the annual general meeting of the European Regions Airline Association. The firm order will be included in Embraer’s 2013 third quarter backlog. Delivery is scheduled in the first semester of 2014.

The E195 is the first jet aircraft to be added to the Aurigny Air Services fleet. The airline currently flies turboprops on six daily frequencies on its principal route between the London Gatwick Airport and Guernsey. With 122 slim seats in single-class layout, the E195 will enable the carrier to increase the number of daily flights to eight and offer much-needed additional capacity.

“The acquisition of the E195 is a major step forward for our company,” said Mark Darby, CEO of Aurigny Air Services. “The London Gatwick route is very important for us. We’ve been mandated by the State of Guernsey to increase capacity and upgrade the quality of our overall service so we decided to move up to a jet. The E195 was the natural choice.”

Image: Embraer.

Aurigny Air Services:

EasyJet to acquire 25 pairs of London Gatwick slots from Flybe

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) has announced and confirmed it plans to acquire 25 pairs of arrival and departure slots London’s Gatwick Airport from Flybe (Exeter) for £20 million ($25.7 million). The company issued this statement:

EasyJet plc can confirm it has completed an agreement with Flybe Group plc to acquire 25 pairs of arrival and departure slots at Gatwick airport for a total consideration of £20 million. The acquisition is subject to the approval of Flybe’s shareholders.

The slots will transfer from summer 2014 and will allow easyJet to provide additional frequencies on popular existing routes from Gatwick as well as add new destinations across the UK and Europe.

In return, Flybe issued this statement:

Flybe confirmed to the London Stock Exchange today at 0700 that it has sold its arrival and departure slots at London Gatwick airport, thus bringing to an end Flybe’s 22 year record of providing high-frequency air services from the UK regions to the airport. Flybe will continue to fly all its routes until the end of March 2014. The slots have been sold to EasyJet for a cash sum of £20 million.

The decision is as a result of the pricing regime applied by the airport’s owners to the operators of smaller, regional aircraft which, in Flybe’s case, has resulted in a 102% rise over the last five years. In a well-publicised, lengthy and expensive complaint, the airline used the Airports Act 1986 to argue to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in 2010 that Gatwick was acting in an anti-competitive and discriminatory manner. Despite support from other airlines, communities and governments around the British Isles, the fact that Flybe operates more UK domestic flights than any other airline and has won the airport’s Gold Award for punctuality in every quarter since its introduction in 2009, the CAA ruled in September 2012 that Gatwick was within its rights to raise their landing fees for smaller aircraft, thus paving the way for today’s regrettable announcement.

Flybe will continue to operate as normal all its seven domestic Gatwick routes – from Belfast City, Guernsey, Inverness, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Newcastle and Newquay – until Saturday March 29, 2014, with no changes to pricing, frequency or timings. It also confirmed that there will be no impact upon any other route currently operated from those seven airports and that the funds generated by the sale of the slots will be re-invested in the remaining 159 Flybe routes.

Separate to this announcement, Flybe today updated the London Stock Exchange on the significant positive progress it has made in its plan to return Flybe UK, its UK based scheduled airline, to profitability. Highlights included surpassing its target savings of £25m, with £30m of annual cost savings being delivered for year 2013/14 onwards, and the deal agreed in principle with BALPA (British Airlines Pilots Association) for a 5% reduction in salary in return for extra time off.

Top Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best. EasyJet’s Airbus A320-214 G-EZTD (msn 3909) holds short of the runway ready for departure from London (Gatwick).

EasyJet (UK):

Flybe:

Bottom Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. Flybe’s Bombardier DHC-8-402 (Q400) G-JEDW (msn 4093) arrives at Gatwick Airport.

Flybe LGW Route Map: Flybe flies to mainly UK domestic destinations from LGW:

Air Arabia Maroc arrives in London Gatwick

Air Arabia Maroc (airarabia.com) (Casablanca) on October 28 launched new service connecting Casablanca and Tangier with London (Gatwick). A total of five weekly flights will be operated between Morocco and the United Kingdom.

The new weekly flights between Casablanca and London-Gatwick Airport will operate on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays departing Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport at 09:45 and arriving in London-Gatwick Airport at 13:10. The return flight departs London-Gatwick Airport at 14:10 and arrives in Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport at 17:40.

Flights between Tangier and London-Gatwick Airport will operate on Thursdays and Sundays departing Tangier International Airport at 16:15 and arriving in London-Gatwick Airport at 19:25. The return flight departs London-Gatwick Airport at 12:15 and arrives in Tangier Airport at 15:30. All times are local.

Air Arabia Maroc: