British Airways plans Gatwick relaunch post union deal in ’22

Bloomberg

British Airways (BA) is set to operate a new unit offering European flights from London Gatwick airport in March following a deal with cabin crew.
The breakthrough in talks with flight attendants comes after an earlier deal with pilots and leaves only terms with ground staff to be settled, Luis Gallego, chief executive officer of BA parent IAG SA, said.
“If we can close all of that we will start flying from Gatwick in March 2022,” Gallego said in an interview with Bloomberg
Television. “The most important thing is to have the efficiency that is required to be profitable.”
British Airways and its Gatwick unions reached a compromise on new employment contracts after the carrier said it would scrap European operations there and focus on its Heathrow hub if expenses weren’t slashed. The airline contends that a new unit is the only way forward at the airport south of the UK capital after years of losing money.
Gallego reiterated that the division is “not a low-cost carrier” but a more efficient platform to enable British Airways to compete in the tougher conditions expected to prevail as travel emerges from the coronavirus crisis.
One way BA might save money is to have all planes return to Gatwick at the end of the day, avoiding the expense of crew layovers in overseas hotels, the Paddle Your Own Kanoo airline-news website
reported.
BA’s long-haul rival Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd said earlier that it will only bring back Gatwick flights once its Heathrow capacity has reached 2019 levels, most likely after April next year.
Virgin CEO Shai Weiss, who like Gallego was speaking as the first London-New York flights departed after the reopening of the US border to Europeans, said Virgin “will probably move a bit into Gatwick” but focus mainly on Heathrow.
Gallego also said that business travel is likely to remain as much as 15% lower than pre-pandemic levels even in 2023. Weiss said he expects the market to have returned in full by then.

Heathrow’s latest gate outage
causes hours-long queues
Bloomberg

Passengers arriving at London Heathrow airport on Wednesday were caught in queues that stretched for as long as two hours after software issues caused automated entry gates to fail for the third time in less than two months.
A technical issue was affecting Border Force e-gates at a number of ports, according to a spokeswoman for the Home Office.
“We are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible and apologise to all passengers for the inconvenience caused,” she said.
The border chaos threatens to mar a comeback for international travel after the US lifted entry restrictions on visiting Brits and Europeans. Airlines have reported a surge in bookings and planes on transatlantic journeys are filling up.