BA leases out surplus ex-Monarch Gatwick slots

UK carrier BA has confirmed that it is leasing out some of the summer 2018 London Gatwick slots that it acquired from defunct UK leisure carrier Monarch Airlines, because it was unable to use them all. BA parent company IAG announced that it was acquiring Monarch Airline’s London Gatwick slot portfolio in November 2017, primarily for use by BA. A BA spokesman said the extra slots have enabled the airline to operate its biggest schedule from Gatwick in more than a decade, but not all the slots could be used. Under the ‘use it or lose it’ rule, slots must be operated, or they will be returned to the slot administrators for reallocation. “Given the very tight timescales involved it has not been possible to use all of the new slots in the first summer season. While we assess our future growth plans to make maximum use of the additional slots for the years ahead, we have leased out a small number of them, which is a very common industry practice at busy airports,” he said.<br/>