More BA flights redirected to Heathrow

Wednesday 01 July 2020

All BA flights from Jersey have been redirected to Heathrow until September as part of a cost-cutting move.

In anticipation of air travel reopening, the airline was offering flights to London Gatwick starting in August.

But customers who had booked onto these flights have now been told that their trips have either been cancelled or redirected. The website is now showing no flights to Gatwick until 9 September. 

One BA customer told Express that two return trips were affected, expressing frustration about the refund process. 

Pictured: Customers with flights booked to Gatwick during August have either had their flights redirected or cancelled. (Stuart Bailey/BA)

“One trip was automatically replaced with Heathrow. The other was just outright cancelled with no replacement offered… Their website is a mess. The cancellation email appears to give you the option to claim a refund for the cancelled flights, but you actually can't. Only a voucher.”

Asked the reason for the abrupt change, BA told Express that it was intended as a savings measure in response to the pandemic, noting that it will instead be favouring long-haul services from Gatwick this month.

“We’re looking forward to starting a small number of long haul services from Gatwick in mid-July,” a spokesperson said. 

“Throughout July and August, we’ll be consolidating our Gatwick and Heathrow short-haul flying to operate form our Heathrow base. 

“This enables us to drive operational and cost efficiencies across our business at a time when demand is yet to return and international travel restrictions remain in place.”

Pictured: BA isn't advertising flights to London Gatwick until September.

They added: “We’re proactively letting customers know and recommend checking their booking on ba.com prior to travel.”

News of the schedule change comes just weeks after the Heathrow link made its return for the first time in more than a decade when BA unexpectedly changed all flights booked to Gatwick in July.

Pictured top: BA will now be flying to Heathrow, rather than Gatwick, until September. (Nick Morrish/BA)