British Airways Schedules Buenos Aires Nonstop, Adds Two Long-Haul Gatwick Routes

British Airways (BA) has scheduled the resumption of nonstop service to Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires from the start of the summer 2023 season.

Direct flights between London Heathrow (LHR) and Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) will return on March 26, operating five times per week using Boeing 787-8 aircraft, with capacity for 214 passengers.

The UK airline provided daily service prior to the pandemic. Since January 2022 flights have operated with a stop in São Paulo-Guarulhos (GRU), taking the total journey time to approximately 16 hr. and 55 min. The return of the nonstop LHR-EZE route will cut the flight time by about two hours.

According to data provided by Sabre Market Intelligence, London was the third largest market in Europe from Buenos Aires in 2019. O&D traffic between the two cities totaled 266,871 two-way passengers, behind Buenos Aires-Madrid on 471,628 and Buenos Aires-Barcelona on 323,934.

British Airways previously competed indirectly in the London-Buenos Aries market with Norwegian, which operated a London Gatwick (LGW)-Ezeiza service. However, the Scandinavian carrier ended long-haul flying during the pandemic, leaving BA as the sole provider of flights between the UK and Argentina.

BA’s booking system also shows a number of other changes are planned for the summer 2023 season, including adding flights to Las Vegas (LAS) and Vancouver (YVR) from Gatwick.

The Gatwick-Las Vegas route was last operational in March 2020, with 3X-weekly flights expected to resume on March 26, 2023, while Gatwick-Vancouver will be 6X-weekly from May 19. Both routes will use 777-200ERs. BA currently serves Vancouver daily from Heathrow using Airbus A380s.

Earlier this week, the oneworld alliance member confirmed plans to cut about 10,000 flights to and from Heathrow between late October and March 2023. The airline hopes the decision will help to minimize disruption over the winter season.