Heathrow and the regions

Flybe has surprisingly made a joint announcement with Heathrow welcoming the commitment of the airport to enhance regional connectivity both within current runway capacity constraints and in the event of new runway.  (See also COMMENT)

CEO Saad Hammad said:  “Our national hub in the South East must address the needs of all the nations and regions of the UK not just those living within the boundary of the M25. Key to this is an airport pricing regime that encourages regional connectivity alongside guaranteed slot availability for regional connecting services. We are delighted that Heathrow has listened to the issues faced by the UK regions and is taking practical steps to be more inclusive.”

The commitments include:

• A review of airport charges for Heathrow to play its part in keeping existing domestic routes commercially attractive to airlines from January 2016.

• Establishing a new Heathrow Route Development Fund.  £10m in start-up capital for airlines to support five new routes for three years.

• Partnering with UK airports, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), Chambers of Commerce, national and regional government to work with airlines to establish new domestic routes through Heathrow.

• Working with government to re-designate public service obligation (PSO) routes to Heathrow.

• Working with any organisation that wants to operate Northolt as a satellite runway for UK routes until Heathrow is expanded. 

www.flybe.com  www.heathrow.com

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