British Airways scraps Gatwick short-haul subsidiary plans

British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) will suspend short-haul international operations at London Gatwick and has also abandoned plans for a new British Airways-branded subsidiary operating short-haul services from the airport after the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) refused to back the deal.

“We’re disappointed that our plans for a new short-haul subsidiary at Gatwick have not received BALPA’s support. After many years of losing money on European flights from the airport, we were clear that coming out of the pandemic, we needed a plan to make Gatwick profitable and competitive,” the airline said in a statement.

“With regret, we will now suspend our short-haul operations at Gatwick, with the exception of a small number of domestic services connecting to our long-haul operation, and will pursue alternative uses for the London Gatwick short-haul slots,” it stated.

British Airways suspended operations at the UK’s second-biggest airport at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As previously reported, it had been working with its unions on proposals for a short-haul operation at Gatwick.

The Guardian cited British Airways chief executive officer, Sean Doyle, saying that he would consider selling the Gatwick slots to rivals, although analysts believed it was more likely they would be deployed to other parts of the airline’s parent group, IAG International Airlines Group.

The newspaper said British Airways initially had won support from the pilots union to push ahead with proposals for a British Airways-branded subsidiary, which would have seen up to 17 aircraft based at Gatwick. However, BALPA withdrew its recommendation and scrapped the ballot needed to ratify the deal after consulting more broadly with its members.

BALPA’s acting general-secretary, Martin Chalk, said: “We are disappointed that we couldn’t come to arrangements that were acceptable to our members. We stand ready to work with British Airways to find such arrangements that could be acceptable.”

The union had pulled out of talks with British Airways after the carrier had reportedly refused to contractually commit to providing the same benefits to the pilots of its new subsidiary as in the mainline.