[Anonymous]

[onajetplane]

Looks like a bold move for BA with 3 weekly flights to Lima from GATWICK! Seems like a missed opportunity for feeder traffic at Heathrow, but is nice to see another South American destination on their departure board.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/101958/ba-to-launch-lima-service

[openfly]

How odd!

[sparkyflier]

Wow another surprise from BA, following San Jose – it seems they are tweaking their business model.

Again I would have thought that Bogota and Panama City would be more of a priority than Lima and San Jose, indeed I thought Lima would be an ideal tag to Bogota to help launch the route.

However, with business, tourist and cargo traffic, trying Lima is to be commended.

Anything else on the horizon..?

RF you were nearly there with your prediction..

[FDOS_UK]

Wonder how big the bung (route subsidy) was to attract them to Lima?

[Stonemill14]

Now BA needs to re-introduce flights from regional airports to LGW to make this and other services more accessible without having to fly to LHR and then take a coach to LGW. Never understood the decision to abandon the MAN/LGW service as on the occasions that I used this it was almost always busy.

[TheLion]

Amazing news tbh. Truly stunned by this given BA’s complete reticence towards doing anything vaguely risky or challenging. A genuine curveball at this time!

First new South America service for some 25-30 years, since Buenos Aires was re-added in the late 80s or early 90s I think!

A huge surprise this one, both the destination and the choice of LGW as departure airport, although it’s likely to be a winner both with the popularity of Perú as a destination and the growth in high-end tourism to the country, which should mean plenty of block bookings.

I wonder if whether this route may move to LHR later on to maximise government business, plus higher-yielding connections as ties between the two nations grow.

Stonemill14 – 18/08/2015 18:07 BST
+1 Totally agree. Strange strategy. Connections to all main UK & Ireland airports would help them grow their BA Holidays business with potential network-wide knock on effects.

[miningguy]

As a frequent flyer to Peru from the UK I am *thrilled* at the news. I have flown to Peru 6 times in 6 months – on each occasion Iberia have lost my bags. Attempts at even getting an apology have failed – the ground handling staff in Lima and London just don’t seem to care. At LHR, because I often land at T5, the only staff to be seen are BA, who just seem to shrug when I so much as mutter a complaint.

I have been coming to Lima for many years now and the place is booming. The city and neighbouring areas are packed with building projects, new hotels and restaurants. There are numerous flights a day filled with tourists. So I can see why there could be a business reason for BA doing this. I would assume they are going for the tourist trade and hence the LGW departure.

The important news (for me), is I can ditch Iberia in a 9 months time 😀

[1nfrequent]

I think it’s an exciting new destination and it would certainly tempt me into exploring Peru *but* I have to say that I would be very wary about doing 12+ hours on one of those crappy 3-class 777s. The IFE and the seats are pretty poor (and I say that having experienced them on the MCO route).

1F

[sparkyflier]

What progress are BA making on their 772s with regards to upgrading them? How many have the new seats, in- flight entertainment, refurb and new WT+ seats etc? The ones I have been on in the past 11 months have all had the refurb, but these were all LHR flights. Are any/many of the LGW still to be updated? Have all the LHR 772s been updated?

[Jasonltd1]

Looks like BA’s 66th Gatwick route including seasonal’s – certainly a change of direction from a few years back..

[AisleSeatTraveller]

perhaps Gatwick is a toe-dipping exercise before a move to LHR once the traffic has developed (and slots have been release following routing some North American flights through Dublin and IAG’s new toy, Aer Lingus)

or as stated, it’s a leisure route to Machu Picchu!

[ViajeroUK]

I stand to be corrected, but I seem to recall that Iberia’s flights to Latin America were cited as a ‘selling’ point for the BA/Iberia merger/takeover.

Now that BA are going to serve San Jose and Lima direct will this be a bit of a snub for Iberia, who have served both of these destinations for sometime?

[sparkyflier]

I do not see this as a snub at all – the two countries -UK and Spain- each have markets which are best served directly. For example IB looking to serve Tokyo is not a snub to BA at all, as there is a market there which needs tapping into.

[Carajillo2Sugar]

BA could/should make more UK domestic connections to Gatwick (I think it’s only Glasgow at the moment) and it maybe something that is in the pipeline but, that said, they already have a burgeoning European network for connections to/from their Gatwick longhaul routes:

Alicante
Faro
Ibiza
Rhodes
Amsterdam
Edinburgh
Innsbruck
Rome
Barcelona
Friedrichshafen
Jersey
Salzburg
Bari
Fuerteventura
Lanzarote
Seville
Bodrum
Funchal
Larnaca
Tenerife
Bordeaux
Geneva
Malaga
Tirana
Cagliari
Genoa
Malta
Turin
Catania
Glasgow
Naples
Valencia
Crete
Grenoble
Nice
Venice
Dalaman
Halkidiki
Paphos
Verona
Dubrovnik
Heraklion
Pisa
Vienna

That’s a lot of opportunities to attract passengers to fly via Gatwick and along with MADRID / HEATHROW / DUBLIN it means IAG have another hub to expand from. Willy W has already said he doesn’t believe LHR needs another runway and now it looks like he’s starting to hedge his bets by covering both of the major London airports.

I don’t think he’s as daft as some people think……

[Author]

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