British Airways (BA) is to launch a new direct service between London Gatwick and Tenerife during summer 2013. The details of this new route follow just weeks after the carrier began taking bookings for a new link to Alicante, also from London Gatwick, which will commence in late March 2013. BA plans to operate a five times weekly service on the new Tenerife route from March 31, 2013, competing directly with easyJet, Monarch Airlines, Norwegian, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways. It will also introduce a twice weekly link from London Gatwick to Arrecife, Lanzarote in the summer 2013 schedule.

Although there are already more than 29,000 seats available some months on the route, rising to 46,000 when you factor in alternative flights from other London airports, this represents a major development for the Canary Islands destination as it introduces a new network link to the UK capital. In an exclusive interview with The HUB ahead of this announcement, Carlos Alonso Rodriguez, Vicepresidente y Consejero Insular de Economia y Competitividad, outlined just what the new service brings to the destination.

“We are delighted that British Airways has chosen to launch a new five times weekly link to directly connect London Gatwick with Tenerife South for summer 2013. This will allow us to capture an important premium niche market as they will be the first operator on the route to offer a full Business Class service,” he said.

This represents the return of the BA brand to the Tenerife market. The UK national carrier previously served the island between October 2000 and March 2008 through its then franchise partner GB Airways. Alongside flights from London Gatwick, the carrier had non-stop links to Tenerife from Bristol, East Midlands and Manchester.

The opening of reservations on the route by BA this week and the formal announcement of the new route at the World Travel Market in London marks the conclusion of a period of hard work from the destination. It was supported in achieving this network milestone by global route development experts ASM.

“ASM has given us very useful desk support to analyse potential new routes and opportunities that we may have in both the leisure and business sectors to improve the connectivity of the island. We have been really happy with the work they have completed up until now and hope in the future to strengthen the partnership,” said Carlos Alonso Rodriguez.

When BA commences services in late March 2013 there will already be close to 30,000 seats in the London Gatwick – Tenerife South market in each direction. In the table below we highlight the key operators on this route by seat capacity during BA’s first full month of services. In 2011, an estimated 421,000 O&D passengers flew between London Gatwick and Tenerife South.

NOTE: Analysis doesn’t include Norwegian’s new services which were announced last month but for which a flight schedule has not yet been confirmed.

** WATCH our EXCLUSIVE Routes TV video interview with Carlos Alonso Rodriguez, Vicepresidente y Consejero Insular de Economia y Competitividad, announcing this new route. **