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Bizarre new BA route launched: Glasgow to Salzburg!

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To be fair, this is not as bizarre as the Edinburgh to Ibiza service launched by British Airways last year.  It is close, though.

From December 12th, British Airways is launching a Saturday-only service from Glasgow to Salzburg.

The timings are decent, leaving Glasgow at 12.40 and leaving Salzburg for the return at 15.50.

Salzburg

The justification for the service is to “utilise time within the Gatwick short-haul schedule” and the flights will be staffed with Gatwick-based crew.

It will be a two cabin service.

Avios flights have already been loaded into ba.com – initially they are offering the bare minimum of four seats per flight in Eurotraveller and two seats per flight in Club Europe.  These clearly will not last long, at one flight per week, so move quickly if you are keen.  Additional seats may open up later if demand is low.

If you live in London, remember that new weekend services to Salzburg will be running between December and March from Heathrow.  This is in addition to the well established Gatwick service.

Whilst a small town, there are numerous hotel redemption options.  I have stayed at the Sheraton by the park which is one of the better ones in the chain.  There is a Crowne Plaza a few seconds away.  The old town contains the luxury Starwood option of the Goldener Hirsch and a Radisson Blu bookable with Club Carlson points.  Unfortunately the InterContinental resort in nearby Berchtesgaden is now a Kempinski, although it is still worth a look if paying cash.  There are no Hilton options.


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Comments (21)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • CV3V says:

    Perfect….nothing bizarre at all about this 😉 , in fact just booked it for £66 one way which is just as good a price as any budget carrier, and includes 23kg luggage allowance (and possibly a complimentary bag of nuts and a cup of tea) and one world status benefits. The first time i have used cash to buy a BA ticket in about 8 years!

    • CV3V says:

      The flight i booked this morning for £66 now costs £208! one way. It’s looking a popular flight!

  • Andrew says:

    Two lovely SPG properties a short trip out of Salzburg at Schloss Fuschl. Next to each other – one sheraton and one luxury collection.

    Can thoroughly recommend, from a trip a few years back.

  • Ross Parker says:

    I take it that you are neither a skier nor a clubber, Rob? If you’d ever had to schlep ski bags around, or search for an oversized baggage carousel at LHR/LGW, you’d know the value of direct flights from local airports.

    • Rob says:

      I know the value, but you need to look at it from a marketing perspective. Trying to sell seats on a once a week route, on an airline which everyone knows does not fly anywhere except London from Glasgow, is not exactly easy.

  • Judge says:

    Perfect for ski season with great flight times. So not at all bizarre. I do agree the Ibiza flights were weird, because the flights were in the middle of the night.

  • Iain says:

    I’m just glad this BA policy of only flying to London from Scotland seems to be wavering! I wonder if we’ll see any other flights in due course?

  • Alan says:

    Jet2 Edinburgh-Salzburg flights pretty rammed when I last went during ski season and most ski accommodation is Sat-Sat so seems a pretty sensible use of a spare plane rotation to me. Would love more of these as the extra free baggage allowance with status really comes into its own on these flights!

  • Anthony Dunn says:

    What does this demonstrate? That people (BA staff) are now (relatively) cheap but the planes are expensive. Makes complete sense to max out on asset utilisation. It will be interesting to see whether BA starts trying out other ex-the UK regions routes.

  • Rory says:

    I’m pretty sure that these Scottish weekend services are part of a deal with Barrhead Travel.

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.