LONDON – BA Cityflyer has announced plans to launch a new route from London City to Aberdeen, which will start as early as next month.

Flights will begin on November 1, 2022, and will run through to January 22, 2023, using the carrier’s Embraer E190 aircraft, which will complement the multiple daily flights British Airways already operates from London Heathrow.

Commenting on the new route was Matt Hazelwood, the Chief Commercial Officer for AGS Airports Ltd:

“This announcement is welcome news and will provide even more choices for passengers between the Granite City and London.

“We look forward to working with BA Cityflyer to establish the route.”

Also commenting on the route was Mark Beveridge, the Operations Director for Aberdeen International Airport:

“It is great to see British Airways growing its offering and presence at Aberdeen International Airport with these new daily flights to London City.

“Routes like London City are important to help drive the economy connecting the business community to key markets.

“It also provides a great opportunity for people to come to see the great area our corner of the country is with fantastic food and drink offerings.”

A Rare Announcement from BA Cityflyer?

The last announcement that AviationSource covered was in January 2022, when BA Cityflyer announced plans to launch four new routes for the Summer 2022 season.

With the Aberdeen flights only running for a short period of time, this could very well be a tester of how the route performs from London City, especially with the huge capacity offerings there are from British Airways at London Heathrow.

If the route does perform well, then we can probably expect to see a further announcement from BA Cityflyer stating that they will be extending the longevity of the route itself.

Even so, this is quite a rare announcement from BA Cityflyer, especially as most of their offering is for domestic destinations across the United Kingdom.

What About The Existing British Airways Flights?

The existing British Airways flights from London Heathrow to Aberdeen will remain in place. The addition of LCY is more to establish whether there is further business-based demand to use this.

This does appear to be an aspect of testing by British Airways, especially after the airline chose to scrap over 10,000 flights from its upcoming Winter schedule.

What will be interesting to see is whether this new LCY route will become a permanent fixture going into 2023 and whether the demand from LCY will prove to have a strong business case.

If it doesn’t, then it isn’t exactly the end of the world, as the airline can continue on the British Airways mainline with this route.

Overall…

It remains clear that BA Cityflyer is definitely trying new things out, based on the limited infrastructure they would have out of London City Airport.

All eyes will be on the carrier to see whether they can fill their planes up for this specific route because that will be the difference b between success and failure.

If it doesn’t work, then the route will be axed swiftly, especially as we are in a period of economic downturn too.

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