Where does British Airways fly from Southampton Airport?

Last weekend saw the start of British Airways flights from Southampton Airport for the summer season.

I thought this was a good excuse to take a look at the routes that BA Cityflyer will be operating from Southampton this year.

If you’ve never been to Southampton Airport, it has its own railway station – which is about 100m from the terminal – and can be reached on direct trains from London Waterloo in just over an hour.

There will be four routes flown by British Airways this summer:

• Bergerac (Saturday flights out, already operating)

• Palma de Mallorca (Sunday flights out, already operating)

• Faro (Saturday flights out, starts 25th May)

• Malaga (Sunday flights out, starts 26th May)

Tickets are available for cash or Avios via ba.com as usual.

What does British Airways offer from Southampton?

The routes are all operated by BA Cityflyer, a separate British Airways subsidiary.

It operates a fleet of Embraer E190 aircraft. These are smaller planes that are able to take off and land from London City’s short runways. When London City is closed over the weekend, some of the aircraft are moved to Southampton to operate these leisure routes.

The E190s feature 2-2 seating (image below) in both business class (Club Europe) and economy (Euro Traveller):

A densification programme is about to begin which will reduce the currently generous 33″ pitch from row 12 and add eight more seats (two rows) to each aircraft.

Service on board differs to British Airways flights from Heathrow and Gatwick. Economy passengers are offered a snack and a soft / alcoholic / hot drink, just like the old days on Heathrow and Gatwick services. Club Europe passengers receive the same service as they would on a mainline flight, albeit from a different catering company to Heathrow flights.

Whilst London City Airport does not have a lounge, which reduces the value of the Club Europe product, Southampton Airport does. Click here to read our recent review of The Spitfire Lounge.

As Rhys wrote:

Let’s be honest: you don’t expect a small airport like this to have a lounge as good as The Spitfire Lounge. In fact, I’ve been to many larger airports with significantly worse (or smaller) facilities.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 16th July 2024, the sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card (which is FREE for the first year) is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. These convert to 30,000 Avios, 30,000 Virgin Points or many other options. Our full review is here. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 3rd July 2024, there is another option. The sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card is tripled to 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. This is the highest ever bonus offered. The bonus transfers to 25,000 airline miles in 40 programmes, including Avios, or can be used for roughly £300 of free hotel stays. Our full review is here. Click here to apply.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.