easyJet: 'buy a flight from Belfast to Buenos Aires' through new Gatwick link

‘The passenger will literally have to do some heavy lifting: picking up baggage after the first flight and taking it to the desk’

The Luton-based budget airline will sell tickets for other carriers on its website (Getty)

Belfast to Buenos Aires or Aberdeen to Alberta: Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, has teamed up with two other low-cost airlines to offer “through fares” via its busiest hub, Gatwick.

The carrier is selling domestic and European flights in conjunction with long-haul services on Norwegian and WestJet of Canada.

The concept, called “Worldwide by easyJet’, builds on the existing GatwickConnects service which allows passengers at the Sussex airport to connect more easily between airlines. Desks in the baggage reclaim areas enable travellers to check in their bags without going “landside”.

Since it launched in 1995, easyJet has been an avowedly “point-to-point” airline, avoiding the costs and complexity of a network carrier. This move does not abandon that principle, since passengers will still “self-connect” – pick up their bags from the carousel after the first flight and take it to the GatwickConnects desk for loading on their next departure.

Around 200,000 easyJet passengers passing through Gatwick already self-connect onto other flights on the same airline.

Peter Duffy, chief commercial officer for easyJet, said: ”We know there is a real customer demand for making flight connections on easyJet easier.

“We are confident it will be popular with customers and look forward to announcing more partners in the near future.”

Guy Stephenson, chief commercial officer for Gatwick, said: “GatwickConnects lets passengers seamlessly self-connect between different airlines at Gatwick at the touch of the button.

“It gives passengers more choice, provides genuine savings and takes the hassle out of self-connecting by protecting against missed connections, putting baggage on the onward flight and offering a range of other hospitality benefits.”

Norwegian is aggressively expanding from Gatwick to New York, Los Angeles and a wide range of US cities, as well as the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires.

WestJet, based in Calgary, Alberta, offers flights from Gatwick to its HQ as well as St John’s in Newfoundland, Toronto and Vancouver.

The move poses a threat to established network carriers such as British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa because it instantly multiplies the number of potential journeys that can be sold in a single transaction. But unlike the experience on those airlines, the passenger will literally have to do some heavy lifting: picking up baggage after the first flight and taking it to the desk.

In addition, passengers will experience longer “dwell time” between flights. The minimum connecting time is two hours and 30 minutes, compared with just 45 minutes at Frankfurt, Lufthansa’s main hub, and an hour at Heathrow Terminal 5.

Norwegian says it expects easyJet to roll out the same system at other European hubs, such as Paris CDG and Barcelona. Its chief commercial officer, Thomas Ramdahl, said: “With Norwegian’s growing long-haul networks and easyJet’s extensive European routes, millions more passengers will have the chance to travel to some of the world’s top destinations, all with great fares, smooth connections and a quality service.”

Earlier this year Ryanair introduced connecting flights through some of its European airports, as well as selling connections to long-haul flights to the Americas through the Spanish airline Air Europa.

Its main hub, Stansted airport in Essex, hopes to build a network of connecting services.