British Airways to increase Jersey-Gatwick flights

British Airways will add an extra weekday flight between Jersey and London Gatwick when Flybe pulls out of the route in March.

Flybe, the only other carrier on the route, will stop flying it from 29 March 2014 after agreeing to sell its Gatwick slots to Easyjet.

The extra flight means BA will offer six flights on weekdays.

Doug Bannister, Group CEO for Port of Jersey, welcomed the move as "excellent news" for the island.

Colm Lacy, BA's head of commercial at Gatwick, said the change offered flexibility and improved connection times for onward flights to Europe.

The airline first operated the route in 1934 as Jersey Airways, a subsidiary of British European Airways, which later became part of British Airways.

The first flights landed on the beach, until an airfield and terminal opened in 1937.