London Gatwick Airport (LGW) plays a relatively small role in British Airways’ overall operations. From the winter onward, the UK’s second-busiest airport will have 9% of the Group’s services. There will be an average of 44 departures each day, both long-haul with BA mainline and short-haul with BA EuroFlyer.

Cirium Diio indicates that BA will serve 67 destinations from LGW in the examined period. 44 will be within Europe, including a new winter market. The remaining 23 places are outside Europe, including a return to two destinations that BA served from LGW a while ago. The list will not include San José or Tampa, as they are moving to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in October.

BA Lifts Off For Sri Lanka On October 23

British Airways 777-200ER at Gatwick Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Northern Hemisphere carriers, including BA, will switch to winter schedules on October 25, based on IATA slot seasons. Two days before, the UK’s largest long-haul carrier will reintroduce service from LGW to Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB). Sri Lanka was previously part of BA’s network between 2013 and 2015, when flights were tagged with the Maldives. The carrier stopped in Malé in both directions.

This time will be very different, as BA will operate nonstop in both directions. Three weekly flights will exist in the northern winter only. All services will, of course, be on the so-called LGW-configured Boeing 777-200ER. Designed for lower-yielding leisure markets, the 332-seat layout will primarily be deployed. It has 32 seats in Club World (1-2-1), 48 in World Traveller Plus (2-4-2; 38″ pitch), and 252 in World Traveller (3-4-3; 31″). 3-4-3 is particularly undesirable.

Days

LGW To CMB; Local Times

Days

CMB To LGW; Local Times

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays

BA2043: 5:30 PM-9:00 AM+1

Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays

BA2044: 11:00 AM-5:00 PM

Booking data via OAG Traffic Analyzer shows that London-CMB-London is a large market. Approximately 365,000 round-trip passengers traveled in the 12 months to June 2026. About 31,000 flew indirectly to/from LGW, which meant that CMB was a larger market from the UK’s second-busiest airport than even the main cities in India of Delhi (24,000) and Mumbai (21,000).

The problem is the relatively low-yielding nature of CMB, although that’s the same as for most markets in South Asia. The demand primarily revolves around visiting friends and relatives, which is the lowest of the lowest for yields, although Sri Lanka also has many tourists from the UK. BA will be hoping for a price premium for its nonstop offering, even against SriLankan Airlines from LHR.