More details about BA’s new low-cost London Gatwick operation emerge

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With a deal now done with pilot union BALPA to cut pay and conditions, British Airways is pushing on with its plans to launch a new low-cost operation at London Gatwick next year.

This operation is ‘low cost’ only in terms of its operating structure. It will not be ‘low cost’ from the point of view of the passenger, and the flights will be fully BA branded as they were pre-covid.

Flyertalk published an email which had been sent to ex-BA cabin crew members to ask if they wanted to apply to work at the new operation.

It is described as ‘a new start-up airline’ albeit under British Airways ownership. The airline will be:

“a full-service premium airline competing on leisure routes from Gatwick, operating a range of European point-to-point flying.”

What salary is on offer?

The basic pay on offer is £15,848. This will be topped up by ‘duty pay’ (an extra payment based on hours flown), commission on in-flight sales and allowances.

The maximumsalary achievable, with meal and duty allowances added, is £24,000. Crew have claimed in the past that there is always a disparity between BA’s claims of ‘maximum earnings’ and the reality so you should assume that £24,000 will be difficult to achieve.

One way that BA is keeping costs down is by ending night stops. All aircraft will return to Gatwick in the evening so there will be no hotel bills for crew. This will impact the ability to run early morning departures from, for example, Jersey as an aircraft would first need to arrive from London.

The cabin crew hired for these contracts will not work the Caribbean long-haul flights departing from Gatwick. The jobs are exclusively short haul, although many crew with family or other commitments will appreciate being in their own beds every night.

Flights are scheduled to launch in March 2022 according to the email. This would presumably be 27th March, which is the first day of the IATA Summer season and is when the ‘Summer’ slot allocation comes into play.

Routes have not yet been announced. The first year is expected to use no more than 17 aircraft, only half of what Gatwick used in the Summer peak in 2019, so it will not be a return the historic normal Summer flying pattern. We will let you know when flights are bookable.