[title]
Planned to get out of the UK this Christmas? Had you, by any chance, pictured a Hallmark movie-worthy trip to New York, complete with ice-skating underneath the Rockefeller Centre and gift-shopping in Macy’s? If the answer is yes, you may have to rejig your plans a little.
That’s because British Airways is scrapping all of its flights from London Gatwick to New York until next year. The service to John F. Kennedy Airport will be suspended from December 12, 2024 until March 25, 2025, affecting at least 103 journeys and upwards of 1,000 travellers.
The cancellations are down to a shortage of planes. BA was meant to be getting a delivery of engines and parts from Rolls Royce for its Boeing 787 aircraft but there are ongoing supply chain issues across aviation causing those deliveries to be delayed.
BA runs nine daily services from London to New York’s JFK, eight of which take off from London Heathrow and one from Gatwick. The Heathrow services to the Big Apple will be unaffected but BA has also been forced to cancel flights from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpar and Doha.
A spokesperson for the airline said: ‘We’ve taken this action because we do not believe the issue will be solved quickly, and we want to offer our customers the certainty they deserve.
‘We’ve apologised to those affected and are able to offer the vast majority a flight the same day with British Airways or one of our partner airlines.’
Take flight with Time Out
In other news from UK runways, this tiny northern English airport was recently crowned the best in the world (again), a bunch of new routes are running from Birmingham. There’s also been new affordable flights from Edinburgh to New York and the return of direct flights from the UK to this beautiful Caribbean island.Plus, a hypersonic jet that can go from the UK to New York in just two hours just got a step closer to being built.
Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out UK newsletter for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.