British Airways has today registered BA EuroFlyer as the name of its new short-haul operation from London Gatwick Airport.
The identity was lodged with Companies House in the UK although the operation is expected to retain regular British Airways branding in the mould of BA CityFlyer.
In a statement provided by the airline and shared with employees last week, BA chief executive and chairman Sean Doyle said: “Our plans for a new BA subsidiary to fly short-haul at Gatwick are progressing well, and whilst we still have some further negotiations to sort, it looks likely that we will be up and running to fly the summer schedule.”
Plans for the launch of the subsidiary airline have hit a number of stumbling blocks including protracted talks with the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA).
Speaking to Bloomberg TV earlier this week, Luis Gallego, chief executive of BA parent company IAG, said the airline had made a loss at Gatwick in nine of the last ten years.
“If we want to operate and to compete in this new environment that is going to be even tougher we need to be efficient.”
He continued: “BA has reached an agreement with the pilots… and last week they closed an agreement with cabin crew. And they are talking now with ground people and if we can close all that we’ll start flying from Gatwick in March 2022.
“The most important thing is to have the efficiency required to be profitable. When you have a business that is profitable you can develop that business and there will be more opportunities in the future.”
British Airways suspended the vast majority of its services from Gatwick in March 2020 as a result of the pandemic.