Impressive: London Gatwick Has Gained 4 New Airlines In 1 Week

Between November 12 and 15, London Gatwick added Jet2, Condor, and Qanot Sharq to its portfolio. A few days before, the Isles of Scilly Skybus confirmed Gatwick service. It’ll replace the now-defunct Eastern Airways on the Public Service Obligation service from Newquay. It was temporarily to fly an ATR 72 from Blue Islands, but that carrier also no longer exists. It is unclear whether it’ll initially use aircraft from Aurigny or Loganair, but we’ll find out soon: its first flight is down for November 23.

By far the biggest development is the arrival of Jet2. Gatwick is its 14th base in the UK and number three in the London area, after Stansted and Luton. The leisure carrier will better capture passengers from the south of London and in Kent, West and East Sussex, Surrey, etc. It is bound to make my celebratory Weekly Routes article (see the most recent edition).

Jet2 Will Arrive In March

Credit: GCMap

Jet2 will start Gatwick flights on March 26, shortly before northern carriers switch to summer schedules. Five Airbus A321neos will be based there. Gatwick recently released six additional stands for night-stopping aircraft. Jet2 was allocated five, and TUI Airways was given one. Jet2’s current plan for its first day sees two departures: 09:45 to Tenerife South and 09:55 to Alicante. It’ll gradually build up to ten daily departures, which Cirium Diio data shows will first occur on May 21.

While Jet2’s network will grow, including with winter-only links, it currently plans 29 routes. More flights exist to Faro than elsewhere. Unsurprisingly, all 29 markets will have head-to-head competition with at least one other carrier; at least passengers will benefit. In the all-important third quarter of 2026 (July-September), Jet2 will be Gatwick’s fifth-largest operator by departures, behind easyJet, BA, TUI, Vueling, and Wizz Air. Jet2 will have 2.7% of Gatwick’s flights.

It won’t be the first time Jet2 has flown to Gatwick on its own scheduled services. It did so between 2005 and 2008, just in a very different way. Using Boeing 737-300s and a BAe 146-300 leased from Flightline, it flew up to three times daily from Newcastle.

Condor Will Operate From Frankfurt

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Condor will arrive at Gatwick on April 1. It’ll operate three times daily from Frankfurt, with the schedule shown below. It’ll be the German carrier’s sole UK route. As BA CityFlyer is ceasing London City-Frankfurt Airport service, Condor will be the third airline from the UK capital to Europe’s sixth-busiest airport. It’ll join BA and Lufthansa from Heathrow. (Ryanair serves Stansted-Hahn.)

Gatwick last had flights to Frankfurt in 2024. Lufthansa operated, having relaunched the route in 2023. It previously operated between 2011 and 2013. BA flew between Gatwick and Frankfurt until 2005. For a brief period in 2012, Air Moldova flew Chișinău-Frankfurt-Gatwick. More widely, Ryanair operated between Stansted and Frankfurt (not Hahn) between 2017 and 2022.

The new route is part of Condor’s growing focus on cities from Frankfurt. London service joins places like Berlin, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Milan Malpensa, Munich, Paris CDG, Rome Fiumicino, Venice Marco Polo, and Zurich.

It’d be easy to conclude that Condor is targeting the price-sensitive end of the Frankfurt-London market, which booking data shows had over 2,500 daily local passengers in the 12 months to September 2025. However, the lowest return fare I could find is £160/EUR182, which is barely different from BA and Lufthansa’s minimum fares from Heathrow. Passengers can also connect to other places via Frankfurt.

Then There Is Qanot Sharq

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The little-discussed Qanot Sharq is from Uzbekistan. According to ch-aviation, the carrier currently has six aircraft: two A320ceos, two A321neos, and two A330-200s. A321LRs and XLRs are coming.

Reportedly initially using the A321LR or XLR—which have not been delivered yet—Qanot Sharq is due to take off from Tashkent to Gatwick on December 15. It’ll run twice-weekly, arriving in the UK at 17:40 and departing at 19:10. Tickets are now bookable.

Central Asia is booming, with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, in particular, keen to grow inbound tourism. Qanot Sharq will join Uzbekistan Airways to London, which serves both Gatwick and Heathrow. It’ll be the first time that London has had two passenger airlines with nonstop Tashkent-London flights. However, it will be the second time in 20 years that two airlines have served the market at all. British Mediterranean (BMED) did so via Yerevan or Tbilisi until 2006.