British Airways plans to close its London-St. Petersburg route. The final flight on this route is scheduled for October 3, according to Travel.ru.
The route has been continuously served by British Airways since Soviet times. After the collapse of the USSR, the flight frequency was increased first to 5, and then to 7 flights per week.
The daily frequency remained stable from 2004 to 2019. However, before the 2008 economic crisis, British Airways repeatedly attempted to double the number of flights, but this was not possible due to restrictions in the intergovernmental agreement on air traffic between Russia and the UK.
A likely reason for British Airways' departure is the potential arrival of budget airline Wizzair on this route. The carrier announced daily flights starting October 1st using the very spacious Airbus A321. It seats 230 passengers—almost twice as many as the Airbus A320 used by British Airways. Departures from London are planned for late evening, arriving in St. Petersburg in the early morning, with the return flight arriving in London early in the morning.
Tickets for the Wizzair flight are not yet available for sale. The flight will not be operated by Wizzair, the flagship Hungarian carrier, but by its British subsidiary, Wizzair UK, established in 2017 to avoid problems with Wizzair flights from various European countries to the UK after the latter's exit from the EU. It is unknown whether Wizzair UK has received permission from Russian aviation authorities to open a route from London to St. Petersburg.
If the route is launched, it will depart from London's budget airline Luton Airport. Therefore, with the departure of British Airways, St. Petersburg will lose its route to London's largest airport, Heathrow.
In addition to British airlines, Rossiya Airlines also serves the St. Petersburg-London route, flying to Gatwick, another London airport. Another Aeroflot subsidiary, Pobeda, withdrew from this route after just a few months of operations (as well as from other international routes from St. Petersburg) due to a conflict with Pulkovo Airport.
Source: travel.ru
