BA operated around 1,000 flights per week from Gatwick during peak summer weeks in 2017 but will add more than 150 weekly flights for summer 2018. The airline said it will be its biggest schedule from Gatwick for a decade.

Many of these new flights will be increased frequencies on existing Gatwick routes with services to Malaga increasing from 27 to 35 per week, Alicante flights going up from 14 to 22 per week, and Faro seeing a rise of 17 to 21 services.

There will also be more flights per week to Tenerife, Madeira and Lanzarote in summer 2018. New destinations will include Palma, Menorca and Gibraltar. The summer season runs from March 25 to October 27.

BA also confirmed that a “small number” of its Gatwick flights in the summer 2018 season would be operated by charter specialist Titan Airways, which BA has “worked with for many years”.

Alex Cruz, British Airways’ chief executive, said: “Over the last five years our operation at Gatwick has seen 40% more customers travelling, with passenger numbers increasing from 4.4 million to 6.2 million.

“We’ve also increased the number of routes we serve by more than 50%; in 2012 we flew to 48 different destinations, whereas now we serve 74. This undoubtedly highlights our commitment and focus to growing our Gatwick operation.”

BA will also operate an additional 400 flights from Gatwick between February 9 and March 24.