British Airways suspends Gatwick flights over coronavirus
British Airways has temporarily suspended flights from Gatwick Airport over the worldwide coronavirus crisis.
BA has already warned it must slash jobs and ground planes to combat coronavirus travel bans, and today took the step of stopping Gatwick flights.
“Due to the considerable restrictions and challenging market environment, like many other airlines, we will temporarily suspend our flying schedule at Gatwick,” a British Airways spokesperson said.
“We are contacting affected customers to discuss their options.”
British Airways said it would still operate some flights from its Heathrow slots. Gatwick is BA’s secondary London base, focused more on leisure flights than its Heathrow Airport base.
Heathrow BA departures today include flights to Stuttgart, Reykjavik, Lisbon and Frankfurt.
Gatwick said it would close its North Terminal earlier this week and reduced its runway opening hours to between 2pm and 10pm throughout April.
British Airways’ announcement comes a day after Easyjet grounded its entire fleet of more than 300 aircraft over coronavirus.
More to follow.