London Gatwick is expanding its long-haul network, with new and resumed routes to South Africa and Thailand taking off this week.

Budget carrier Norse Atlantic on Monday commenced direct flights from Gatwick to Cape Town. The new service will operate three times per week with the carrier’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

The inaugural flight was fully booked across both business and economy cabins, the carrier said, which “shows the high demand for this highly anticipated route”.

Meanwhile, British Airways this week also resumed its service between Gatwick and Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport after a four-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

The reprised service, announced earlier this year, will initially operate three times per week and will increase to up to five times per week in January and February 2025, and four times per week in March 2025, according to the carrier.

British Airways chief planning and strategy officer Neil Chernoff, said: “We know that Bangkok has been a highly anticipated route restart for our customers, so we are thrilled to see it firmly back on our global route map.”

The move comes as the UK carrier this week also announced the temporary suspension of its daily service between Gatwick and New York’s JFK Airport – from 12 December 2024 until 25 March 2025 – due to engine delivery delays. British Airways also said that its new daily service to Kuala Lumpur, which had been set to commence on 10 November, will now be delayed until April 2025.