British Airways has announced a raft of short-haul additions and extensions for the coming winter period.
The carrier will launch a three-times-weekly service between Heathrow and Riga starting from 29 October, followed by 12 weekly flights from Heathrow to Cologne from 30 October, and three flights per week from Heathrow to Belgrade on 31 October.
Cologne is currently served by Eurowings from Heathrow, and Ryanair from Stansted – British Airways launched flights to the airport from Gatwick in 2018, but these have not operated since the start of the pandemic.
Meanwhile Riga is served by airBaltic from Gatwick, and Ryanair from Stansted, while Belgrade is served by Air Serbia from Heathrow, and Wizz Air from Luton.
BA will also launch flights from Heathrow to Turin on 10 December, complementing its existing service from Gatwick, and its subsidiary BA Cityflyer will launch flights from London City to Milan Linate from 5 November, complementing its existing service from Heathrow.
Finally the carrier is to extend several routes to year-round services, with London City-San Sebastian, Heathrow-Ljubljana and Heathrow- Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen all continuing into the winter.
Full schedules for all of the routes above can be seen here.
Commenting on the news Neil Chernoff, British Airways’ director of network and alliances, said:
“We are excited to be adding European cities Riga, Belgrade and Cologne to our route network. These are destinations that we think our customers will love, offering an alternative to some of the more well-known cities we fly to.
“We also know that Italy in particular is a firm favourite with our customers, so we look forward to adding more capacity with flights to Milan and Turin, alongside more choice across Europe generally.”
