Azerbaijan Airlines is to resume flights to the UK in May when it restarts service between Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International (GYD) and London Heathrow (LHR).

Flights will be restored from May 15, initially operating 1X-weekly on Saturdays. A second weekly frequency will be added from May 25 with a Tuesday flight.

Analysis of data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows that Azerbaijan’s flag carrier served the route regularly until the COVID-19 outbreak, offering 3X-weekly flights using Boeing 787-8 aircraft. A weekly service was restored last summer on board 767-300s but ended in October. Since then, the OAG data shows Azerbaijan Airlines has performed just two ad-hoc flights to London.

GYD-LHR

O&D traffic between Baku and London totaled 70,407 two-way passengers in 2019, Sabre Market Intelligence figures reveal, representing a rise of 80.4% on the previous 12 months. Azerbaijan Airlines has been the sole operator of nonstop flights between the destinations since April 2016 when British Airways suspended its LHR-GYD route.

The resumption of Azerbaijan services from London will likely come as welcome news for Wales football fans ahead of Euro 2020. The tournament, which has been delayed a year because of the pandemic, starts on June 11, with Wales set to play two of their Group A matches in Baku against Switzerland and Turkey.

Photo credit: Joe Pries