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British Airways adds Gibraltar and Faro flights from City, Manchester, Edinburgh

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British Airways is bringing forward the launch of its new route to Gibraltar from London City Airport.

It is also launching Faro flights from Edinburgh and Manchester.

These have been triggered by strong suspicions that Gibraltar and Portugal will be on the ‘Green’ list of ‘no quarantine’ destinations which kicks in from 17th May. The list is due to be announced today.

Gibraltar

If you need inspiration for trip, then you might like reader Matthias’ review of a day trip to Gibraltar.

Flights from London City Airport are operating twice a week – Mondays and Fridays – using BA CityFlyer’s Embraer E190 aircraft:

The first flight was due to depart on Friday 25th June. This has now been brought forward to Friday 11th June.

BA3289 will operate on Monday and Friday. It departs London City at 13:15 and arrives in Gibraltar at 17:10. The return flight is BA 3290, departing Gibraltar at 17:55 and landing at 19:50.

These feature a 2-2 configuration in both Club Europe and Euro Traveller (there is no blocked seat in Club Europe).

Remember that there is no lounge at London City so, on the outbound, there is no real benefit to Club Europe apart from the improved food and drink. Seating is 2×2 irrespective of class.

You may want to consider flying out from Heathrow, because of the better facilities, and back into City to avoid a potential long immigration queue.

Worlds best departure lounge

Faro

BA CityFlyer had also added additional flights to Faro.

Edinburgh to Faro launches on 29th May and is scheduled to run until 20th June. Flights will operate on Saturdays and Sundays.

From late June, the aircraft is due to swap to operating flights to Florence. My understanding is that BA CityFlyer may decide to drop this and continue with Faro if the demand is there.

Manchester to Faro has been announced via Twitter but was not bookable as of last night. Flights will operate on Saturdays from late May and will use an Airbus A319 from the Gatwick fleet.

Book now

Gibraltar to London City and Edinburgh to Faro are bookable on ba.com for cash or Avios.

Manchester to Faro was not bookable at all, for cash or Avios, as of last night.

You can book on the BA website here.


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Comments (42)

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

  • Jimmy Mac says:

    Seems odd to have flights for only 4 days, ie. 29th May will only be outbounds, 20th June only ib. Leaving only 2 days with both inbound and outbound.

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