British Airways is continuing to step up the competition on transatlantic routes from Gatwick by adding two new routes for summer 2018.
BA will begin flights from Gatwick to Las Vegas from March 27 and to Toronto in Canada from May 1. Both seasonal services will operate three times per week. BA cancelled its previous Gatwick-Las Vegas route in 2015.
The airline will be competing with Virgin Atlantic and Norwegian on the Las Vegas route, while it will be taking on three Canadian carriers - Air Canada Rouge, Westjet and Air Transat – with its Gatwick-Toronto services.
The move continues BA’s strategy of competing directly with other airlines on long-haul routes from Gatwick to North America – it has launched flights to Oakland and Fort Lauderdale this year, which are destinations already served by Norwegian.
BA already flies to both Las Vegas and Toronto from its main hub of Heathrow.
Sean Doyle, British Airways’ director of networks and alliances, said: “Gatwick has always offered a great range of long-haul destinations but adding Toronto and Las Vegas to the summer schedule will take the number of transatlantic routes to 21, making Canada, the US and the Caribbean more accessible than ever before.”