Next Easter, from March 26^th through April 16^th 2023, British Airways will operate extra services between London Gatwick and Barbados⁽¹⁾ . The additional 10 flights will operate Wed, Fri and Sun to/from London Gatwick (IATA: LGW) and Bridgetown (BGI).

These three additional flights will have the capacity to bring an extra 3,336UK visitors to Barbados over the Easter period and will increase capacity with British Airways from Gatwick to eight flights a week. From October 2022 BA operates five times a week from LGW to Bridgetown.

Commenting on the news, Chairman of the BTMI, Shelly Williams said “Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc is delighted to welcome the additional capacity from British Airways to Barbados.”

“British Airways is a long-standing partner, that continues to demonstrate commitment to Barbados. Our mutually beneficial relationship has grown from strength to strength, even in the face of challenges such as the pandemic, fluctuating pound and rising fuel costs. Increasing services between London Gatwick and Barbados at a time that other carriers are opting to redirect their services to shorter haul destinations, speaks volumes for destination Barbados and our relationship management.”

“Easter has always been special to us, so this new capacity is particularly welcomed during this key period for the UK travel trade and our tourism partners in Barbados,” said the Chairman.

This news comes on the back of the recent announcement that Barbados has lifted all covid restrictions.

For the period Jan-July 2022, 100,702 stayover visitors arrived in Barbados from the United Kingdom, representing just under 50% of all international visitors (236,695), where the UK was the largest single source market.

British Airways from 30^th October 2022 will be flying their larger Boeing 777-300 aircraft from Heathrow, with a total seat capacity of 296 seats. This represents a total increase in seats for Winter 2022/23 of 11,205 seats. The winter 2022/23 Gatwick route returns (5 x weekly) on 336 seat Boeing 777-200, now extending to 8 weekly (5+3) over the Easter.

IAG partner airline, Aer Lingus, restarts Manchester to Bridgetown from November 2^nd 2022, through April 30^th 2023. Also from Manchester, Virgin Atlantic restarts MAN-BGI from October 31^st 2022.

SOURCE: Ali Finnegan – travelmedia.ie

Photo by Isaac Struna on Unsplash