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LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - British Airways announced the
launch of a new flight from London's Gatwick Airport to the
Turkish resort of Antalya, once among Thomas Cook's most popular
routes, as airlines jostle to fill the void left by its
collapse.
BA, owned by IAG, said on Wednesday the
six-per-week service would begin next April, in conjunction with
a promotional British Airways Holidays offer.
Thomas Cook's British arm entered liquidation after the
group's collapse last month. Antalya and Dalaman in Turkey were
Thomas Cook Airlines' most popular destinations for UK
travellers, according to data from airline database Cirium.
A company spokeswoman said that the route announcement had
been a long time coming and was unconnected to Thomas Cook's
failure. BA already operates a summer flight to Dalaman.
Thomas Cook's bankruptcy, which triggered a major
repatriation effort aided by BA, easyJet and Virgin
Atlantic, has prompted airlines to consider ways to replace its
capacity to holiday destinations or bid for its airport slots.
Besides BA, operators that were already flying to the two
Turkish destinations from London or Manchester before Thomas
Cook's collapse include easyJet, Dart Group's Jet2, tour group
TUI, Turkish Airlines and its SunExpress joint
venture with Lufthansa.
Unless Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal, HSBC
analyst Andrew Lobbenberg predicted on Wednesday, "easyJet
should benefit this winter from the failure of Thomas Cook".
Within days of its demise, easyJet began offering 15%
discounts to Thomas Cook customers who had not yet left for
their vacations and wanted to rebook.
Turkey expects an increase in flights by easyJet and Jet2 as
well as BA, the country's tourism minister has said. SunExpress
laid on additional lower-fare flights from London Luton airport
and has been targeting Thomas Cook customers left in the lurch,
a spokesman said.
EasyJet is also looking at Thomas Cook assets, Chief
Executive Johan Lundgren said recently - while ruling out a bid
for its German Condor business, being kept airborne by a
government bridging loan.
Leading European budget operator Ryanair may lease
Airbus aircraft returned by Thomas Cook and deploy them
at its Austrian carrier Lauda, group CEO Michael O'Leary said
last week. He too denied any interest in Condor.
A spokesman for the UK court-appointed official overseeing
Thomas Cook's liquidation declined to comment on the status of
bidding for its airport slots.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout in London and Laurence Frost in
Paris; additional reporting by Ceyda Caglayan in Istanbul;
editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Peter Graff)
