Glasgow Airport plea for extra Heathrow flights

Transport Correspondent

Tuesday 18 September 2012

GLASGOW Airport has appealed for improved connections to Heathrow, saying it is struggling to meet business and leisure demand after BMI withdrew from the route last year.

CONNECTIONS: Glasgow Airport says there is more passenger demand for flights to Heathrow than current capacity permits. Picture: Colin Mearns

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Damien Henderson Transport Correspondent

British Airways, which has upped its seats to the London hub, runs nine direct flights on weekdays, half the number it operates from Edinburgh and four fewer than at Aberdeen.

The airline's parent company, IAG, has been forced to hand over seven daily landing slots at Heathrow to rival airlines to prevent it operating a monopoly on the Aberdeen and Edinburgh routes following the purchase of BMI earlier this year. Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus are among the airlines competing for the slots.

However, no such protection has been offered to Glasgow as BMI pulled the route in March 2011, a year before the airline's purchase for £172.5 million from Lufthansa was finalised.The Herald understands that Glasgow Airport has now written to the European Commission, which imposed the conditions on the BMI purchase, complaining that it has been overlooked.It has also appealed to Virgin Atlantic, which earlier this month promised to fly 700,000 passengers a year from Scotland to Heathrow if it wins the Aberdeen and Edinburgh landing slots, to include Glasgow in its plans.A spokesman for the airport said: "The withdrawal in March 2011 of BMI's Glasgow to London Heathrow service, which carried 400,000 passengers annually, impacted on our ability to meet the high business and leisure demand for access to the UK's only hub airport. "British Airways responded positively to this decision by significantly increasing capacity on its Heathrow service and a number of our airline partners added capacity to other London airports. "However, we believe there is passenger demand for further capacity and would therefore welcome any dialogue to examine ways in which Glasgow Airport could be incorporated within Virgin Atlantic's bid."Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, agreed, saying there was unfulfilled demand for travel to Heathrow."While we would be keen to acknowledge all that has been done by both easyJet and British Airways to increase capacity to the various London airports since BMI withdrew, the Heathrow hub connection offer remains a vital one for attracting and retaining business investment in the west of Scotland," he said."Had BMI not withdrawn months before the IAG takeover, Glasgow would unquestionably have been included in the European Commission's protection."British Airways runs 11 flights a day from Edinburgh to Heathrow, as well as seven that were formerly operated by BMI or BMI Regional, and 13 from Aberdeen.The airline said this year it would operate two extra daily services during its winter timetable from Aberdeen and Edinburgh to Heathrow instead of the six operated last winter by BMI.A spokesman for BA said there was nothing to prevent another airline from competing with it on the Glasgow-Heathrow route."When BMI pulled off the Glasgow-Heathrow service, citing heavy losses as the reason, we increased the number of seats available from Glasgow to Heathrow by 4000 per week," he said."We operate in one of the most de-regulated aviation environments in the world. There is absolutely nothing to prevent any carrier from operating between two UK destinations, including Glasgow-Heathrow, if they choose to do so."A spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said it would consider flying between Heathrow and Glasgow but that its focus was on winning the Heathrow slots allocated to Aberdeen and Edinburgh that IAG has agreed to surrender."We are always looking for opportunities to grow our business as confirmation of our plans to fly to and from Scotland shows," she said. "We want to build a broader network including short and mid-haul flying and we would certainly look at Glasgow as well as other UK destinations such as Belfast. However at the moment our focus is on the remedy slots."

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Glasgow Airport plea for extra Heathrow flights

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