British Airways announce new flight routes to Aruba and Guyana
British Airways has announced their first new long-haul flight routes since before the pandemic. The heritage British airline will serve Aruba and Guyana from late March 2023.
BA last announced a new long-haul flight route in 2019 to Portland, Oregon, but due to Covid-19 that inaugural flight was delayed until June of this year.
Both of the new routes, which will operate twice weekly from London Gatwick and are on sale now via the British Airways website.
Travellers will arrive in Guyana via St Lucia, and to Aruba via a stopover in Antigua. The airline has also announced a new direct flight to Trinidad three times per week from Gatwick. The flight formerly went via St Lucia.
BA is the only carrier offering flights to Guyana from the UK and join TUI in flying to Aruba, although TUI’s flights are only available in the high season, which falls over the winter months in the UK.
British Airways are currently in the news for suspending the sale of all short-haul flights from Heathrow Airport, a practical response to this summer’s ‘travel chaos’ which has seen ground staff at airports overworked, pilots and other airport staff go on strike, and huge delays for passengers.
As a result, airlines including BA have had to reduce services to help Heathrow Airport manage its daily cap on passengers, to cope with the high amounts of summer holidaygoers.
Thousands of Brits have faced delays and cancellations this summer as flights have affected due to staff shortages, strikes and problems with baggage handling systems.
BA said it had taken “pre-emptive action to reduce our schedule this summer to give customers certainty about their travel plans”.
“When Heathrow introduced its passenger cap, we took a small number of additional flights from our schedule and to continue to comply with the cap, we’ve been taking responsible action by limiting sales or all the available fares on some of our Heathrow services to ensure more seats are available to rebook customers,” a spokesperson added.
From August 15 Heathrow is expected to lift its passenger cap, so Brits looking for a late-summer holiday are advised that flights with BA and other airlines should return to normal from after that date.
Even if more restrictions are announced beyond August 15, tickets booked before any further restrictions are announced will still be valid for travel.