British Airways will continue to be the largest operator at its second London hub, despite a 10%fall in short-haul capacity at Gatwick and the reduction of long-haul routes from 43 to around 25.
These measures are among several BA has announced to restore its Gatwick operations to profitability. Gatwick is still strategically important to BA, says the carrier, but it will stop trying to build it as a transfer hub, instead emphasising its role as an origin and destination airport. The shift will see six unprofitable long-haul routes suspended and another 10 transferred to Heathrow. In parallel, BA will change its fleet at Gatwick moving from 33 Boeing 747s, 767s and 777s to a 20-strong 777 operation.
It was suggested that BA would absorb its regional subsidiary CityFlyer Express into its European operations at Gatwick, but it will not go this far. BA will instead bring its operations and management closer together to improve "flexibility and financial performance".
The changes will see about 1,000 job losses at Gatwick out of a workforce of 8,500 although BA chief executive Rod Eddington wants this to occur through natural wastage and early retirement.
BA's Gatwick announcement continues Eddington's strategy of tackling underlying problems, and concentrating on sorting out the carrier's route network after a summer spent looking at the proposed KLM merger. The plan is a sensible one, and should be radical enough to stem its Gatwick losses within a couple of years, says Rebecca Langley, airline analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.
The measures will be implemented over two years. The airport's long-haul operation will see a network capacity reduction of 40%by summer 2003 compared to 1999, while Heathrow's will grow by about 5%.
Source: Airline Business
