They’re Back: British Airways Puts Portland And Pittsburgh Flights On Sale

British Airways has put on sale three more US routes. Taking off next summer will be London Heathrow to Portland (the first time it’ll operate), Pittsburgh (resumption), and Gatwick to New York JFK (resumption). They come as BA pushes back the start of San Jose, pulls Gatwick to Las Vegas, removes the A380 from Los Angeles, adds the A380 to three more US airports, and makes various other changes to its US network.

BA is finally set to introduce Heathrow to Portland, which it had expected to begin in June 2019. Photo: Getty Images.

What’s happening?

Resuming on May 28th will be Gatwick to JFK. Operating once-daily, it’ll variously use the 332-seat and 336-seat B777-200ER, according to its schedule submission to OAG. It’ll be followed on June 3rd will be Heathrow to Pittsburgh and Portland, both by 214-seat B787-8s.

The schedule for all three routes is shown below (all times are local). The different departure times on different days reflect slot availability.

• BA171: Heathrow to Pittsburgh, 16:45-19:50, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sun; B787-8
• BA170: Pittsburgh to Heathrow, 21:50-10:10+1
• BA267: Heathrow to Portland, 15:10-16:59, Tue, Sun; B787-8
• BA267: Heathrow to Portland, 15:15-17:04, Mon, Wed, Fri; B787-8
• BA266: Portland to Heathrow, 18:45-12:10+1, Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri
• BA266: Portland to Heathrow, 18:50-12:15+1, Sun
• BA2273: Gatwick to JFK, 15:00-18:00, once-daily; B777-200ER
• BA2272: JFK to Gatwick, 20:01-08:00+1, Mon, Tue, Fri
• BA2272: JFK to Gatwick, 20:10-08:10+1, Wed, Sat
• BA2272: JFK to Gatwick, 20:25-08:25+1, Thu, Sun

There is no sign whether Charleston, introduced in April 2019, will resume. Image: GCMap.

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First time for BA to Portland

It’ll be the first time that BA has served Portland. It announced the route in December 2019, with it set to begin on June 1st, 2020, on a five-weekly, year-round basis, but it was understandably suspended. Had it launched in 2020, it would have been head-to-head with Delta’s summer-seasonal Portland-Heathrow offering. There’s no indication if or when Delta will resume the route.

BA inaugurated Pittsburgh in April 2019, nearly a year before the impact of the pandemic started to be felt. It had four weekly flights by the B787-8; the same as it’ll have next summer. Across all airlines, Pittsburgh-London had over 40,000 round-trip point-to-point passengers in 2019, booking data shows, together with around 270,000 to/from Europe generally. Meanwhile, it will be the third time since 2008 that BA has served Gatwick to JFK.

BA began Pittsburgh in April 2019. Photo: via Beth Hollerich, Communications, Allegheny County Airport Authority.

Other key US changes

BA will no longer use the A380 to Los Angeles from January 10th onwards. However, Boston, Chicago, and Washington will again see the double-decker quadjet next summer. The restart of San Jose has been pushed back from March 27th to June 14th, while Gatwick to Las Vegas (which was to be three-weekly from March 29th) has been cut next summer. Will it return?

In summer 2022, BA will use the A350-1000 (its largest aircraft) to Austin, Chicago, Denver (now from September 4th), Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, Phoenix, and San Diego. Photo: Getty Images.

Other notable changes include Nashville becoming once-daily from May 6th, up from five previously planned, with the larger and more premium B787-10 replacing the B787-8. New Orleans gets a fourth-weekly service, while Houston and Seattle return to twice-daily from May 8th. However, JFK to Heathrow reduces to seven-daily.

Will you be flying across the North Atlantic next year? Let us know in the comments.

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