Franchise agreement renewed with GB Airways

British Airways has renewed its franchising agreement with GB Airways.

The Gatwick-based carrier has been flying in the colours of the world’s favourite airline since February 1995. Under a contract signed this week, the arrangement has been extended for a further eight-year period.

Through this franchise agreement, GB Airways’ aircraft are painted in the standard British Airways livery, and operate with BA flight numbers, with British Airways seats and colour schemes inside the passenger cabins, too. Its employees, wearing the standard British Airways uniforms, deliver the full British Airways Club Europe and Euro Traveller service. The arrangement also gives GB Airways affiliate membership of the oneworld global airline alliance.

Rod Eddington, British Airways’ Chief Executive, said: "GB Airways has been a valuable member of our franchise family for the past five years. It is great news for both airlines, and our passengers, that we have reached agreement to extend this."

John Patterson, Managing Director of GB Airways, said: "The franchise arrangement has been highly successful for both our airlines. For GB Airways, it has helped us grow successful, adding more routes to our network, more modern aircraft to our fleet, and more jobs to our workforce."

GB Airways serves 17 destinations, with flights between London Gatwick and Alicante, Casablanca, Faro, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Madeira, Malaga, Malta, Marrakech, Murcia, Nantes, Oporto, Palma de Mallorca, Seville, Tangier, Tunis and Valencia, and between London Heathrow and Alicante, Malaga, Malta and Oporto. In October, it will launch the first British Airways scheduled service to Tenerife. It operates a total of 288 flights a week, using a fleet of ten aircraft, including nine Boeing 737-300 and -400s and one Airbus A320, the first in a new fleet. Last year it carried 1.1 million passengers. With its headquarters at Gatwick, it employs 600 people. Formed in 1931, it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Bland Group.

GB Airways is one of ten airlines operating as British Airways franchises. Others based in the UK are Brymon Airways and CityFlyer Express (both wholly owned by British Airways), British Mediterranean, British Regional Airlines, Loganair and Maersk Air. Franchisees outside the UK are Comair, of South Africa (in which British Airways has an 18 per cent stake), BASE, of the Netherlands, and Sun-Air, of Denmark. National Jet Italia will become the eleventh British Airways franchisee when it launches flights in Italy next month. These airlines operate some 115 aircraft, operating to 108 destinations - 68 of them not served by British Airways itself - carrying 7.6 million passengers on 212,000 flights last financial year.