British Airways unveils Winter 2003 schedule

British Airways has today announced its route schedule for the winter 2003 season. The new schedule reflects the airline’s strategy of focusing on commercially viable routes.

The network changes, which start on October 26, 2003 unless specified, are:

* A new service from London Gatwick to Turin which will operate on a daily basis until December, 2003, when a twice daily service commences. In addition, from April, 2004, there will be a new service from London Gatwick to Dubrovnik in Croatia which will operate three times each week.

* A new twice daily service from Manchester to Copenhagen.

* Additional frequencies from London Gatwick to the Caribbean commencing in December 2003. Flights to Antigua will increase from seven to 10 each week and flights to Barbados will increase from eight to 10 each week.

* Flights to Bilbao in Spain will switch from London Gatwick to London Heathrow.

* Services from London Gatwick to Bremen and Brussels will be suspended from September 1, 2003, and the service between London Gatwick and Dusseldorf will be suspended from October 1, 2003. The service between London Heathrow and Zagreb in Croatia will be suspended from September 14, 2003, and the service between London Heathrow and San Diego will be suspended from October 26, 2003.

Martin George, British Airways’ director of marketing and commercial development, said: “These announcements continue our strategy of focusing on commercially viable routes and suspending those services which don’t make a financial contribution to our business. Although some routes are being suspended, we are starting three new European services and adding extra frequencies on our popular Caribbean routes.”

Another change for the winter 2003 season is that British Airways’ flights from London Heathrow to Johannesburg and Tokyo will operate from Heathrow’s Terminal 1 instead of Terminal 4 from October 26, 2003. Both these routes have a high number of transfer passengers, many of whom will no longer have to swap terminals at Heathrow for their connecting flights. 

This is the first phase of British Airways’ flight switches between Heathrow terminals which will help make better use of the existing facilities prior to the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008.

To support these additional longhaul services, a major programme of infrastructure improvements is taking place at Terminal 1 including new lounges and check-in facilities.