British Airways has increased its network for October. The British flag carrier is now operating flights to 138 destinations around Europe and the world as it looks to recover from severe network cuts experienced in April.
Around the world, aviation is slowly recovering from its worst crisis. However, this is a process that is taking some time. Each airline is cautiously re-adding routes and capacity as and when demand returns. It is a delicate balancing act, though. Too slow and they’ll miss valuable revenue, but too fast, and they’ll burn money on empty flights. It seems that demand is returning for British Airways, as its network slowly grows.
Over 1,000 weekly short-haul flights
It would seem as though the airline’s short-haul network is recovering much faster than the long-haul network. This is expected as passengers are generally more cautious of traveling long distances than short intra-European hops.
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In total, the airline is serving 89 short-haul destinations across the UK and Europe. While being one of the first countries to be affected by British Airways flight cancellations, things are going well for Italy. British Airways is flying to 16 destinations in the country from Catania to Verona.
In total, Italy has 164 weekly rotations from British Airways originating in both Heathrow and London City. The only country with more weekly rotations is the United Kingdom itself with 204. In total, British Airways is operating 1,109 rotations per week across its short-haul network in October.
Other countries in Europe with a healthy number of British Airways routes are:
- Spain – 11
- Greece – 10
- United Kingdom – 9
- Germany – 7
 What about long-haul?
The long-haul recovery is taking slightly longer. This is in part due to the increased travel restrictions on such routes. While previously a significant destination for British Airways, the United States is currently very restrictive on the entry of passengers from Britain.
Despite this, the United States remains the British flag carrier’s primary market with 12 destinations. This is more than any other region. For comparison, the entire Caribbean region only has eight destinations. Across its long-haul network, British Airways is serving 49 destinations from London Heathrow and London Gatwick.
In total, the British flag carrier is operating just 251.5 weekly flights on its long-haul network. The 0.5 pops up from a one-off flight to the Cayman Islands being operated later in the month. This route is typically a tag flight that stops in Nassau. However, on October 29th, the route will be served non-stop.
Overall numbers
Overall, the airline is operating to 138 destinations across both its short and long-haul networks. This will see the airline operating roughly 1,360 weekly flights. While this may sound impressive, it is only around 25-30% of the flights that the airline says it was running in October last year. Of course, as always, the schedule remains subject to change, for example, if a foreign government closes its borders for all arrivals, as was previously seen in countries such as the United Arab Emirates.
What do you make of the British Airways October network? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
