BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) announced yesterday it will restart flying from Gatwick from March 2022, selling tickets for 35 destinations that will be part of its short-haul subsidiary British Airways's operations.

Created to compete with the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair, the subsidiary company will begin to operate as a standalone business from August, with BA initially running short-haul flights until BA's Air Operators certificate is ready. Mainline BA will start with three short-haul Airbus planes, ramping up to 18 aircraft by the end of May.

BA recently started recruiting pilots for the Gatwick subsidiary, looking for applicants that can fly an Airbus A320 on European routes.

After months of tensions between BA and unions - especially with the British Airline Pilots Association - the carrier finally received backing in early November with Luis Gallego, boss of BA's owner IAG.

After a 5.29 per cent slump on Monday, IAG's shares were up 1.73 per cent yesterday.

(c) 2021 City A.M., source Newspaper