British Airways is to resumes operations to and from Madeira next year from its base at Gatwick.
The airline today announced three new sunshine routes to Seville, Funchal in Madeira and Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, all from Gatwick.
The flights start in March next year and will use A319 and A320 aircraft.
The news follows announcements earlier this year on eight other new British Airways destinations from Gatwick to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, Cagliari in Sardinia, Heraklion in Crete, Rhodes in Greece and Bodrum and Dalaman in Turkey as the British flag carrier tales on the low-cost airlines.
The marketing of flights begins today September 24th with three weekly flights during the summer months and two each week over the winter.
The new route means that an extra 20,000 seats will be available to take people to this autonomous island region of Portugal and the announcement has the full support of the Madeira and the Portuguese tourist boards which is helping pay for the priviledge.
British Airways stopped flying to Madeira when the skies were opened to low-cost carriers with easyJet soon opening up a route to the Portuguese island.
Airports operator ANA has admitted that the Gatwick Madeira route will be subsidised by the Portuguese taxpayer through support payments to British Airways from the local Madeiran tourist board and the national Portuguese tourist board, in addition to payments from the airport management company, although this arrangement is no different to deals done with the low-cost carriers.
