Heathrow may lose regional flights

Heathrow could lose flights from airports like Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds Bradford if BAA is allowed to increase charges warns airline bmi.

Airport operator BAA, which runs six other UK airports including Gatwick, Stansted and Glasgow airport, wants to charge all aircraft using Heathrow the same amount, irrespective of their size. Charges are currently made according to the weight of the aircraft.

“This will have a detrimental impact upon those operators using smaller aircraft to provide short haul and domestic services who will have to pay more per passenger than their long haul competitors,” says bmi chief executive officer, Nigel Turner.

“Airports in Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt will be celebrating if these increases go ahead as many UK regional airports will have stronger links with them than with Heathrow in the future. This cannot be in the interests of UK plc and the aviation industry as a whole. Once broken the regional links will not easily be restored,” adds Turner.

bmi is presenting its objections to BAA’s proposed charges to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It says that charges at Heathrow will increase by over 40% from 1 April and by over 85% in the next five years if BAA has its way. The CAA will make its decision on charges at Heathrow in March.

Only nine UK regional airports now have flights to Heathrow, half the number in 1990. Many regional airports fear the impact losing links to Heathrow would have on the local economy. Newcastle airport, for example, has around half a million passengers on Heathrow flights, many of them on business trips.

Written by: Nick Purdom

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