Scots Heathrow flights axed

Transport Correspondent

Thursday 28 June 2012

AIR passengers could see fares forced up after British Airways dumped two-thirds of the daily flights operated between Heathrow and Scotland by BMI after its takeover, it has been claimed.

GROUNDED: There is concern over the frequency of flights.

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DAMIEN HENDERSON Transport Correspondent

Announcing its winter schedule, due to take effect from October, BA said it would run just two additional daily flights from both Aberdeen and Edinburgh to the London hub instead of the six daily weekday flights operated last winter by BMI.

Business leaders and politicians warned the cuts would make it harder for passengers to find a ticket and would add to pressure on fares. The announcement comes after the heavily loss-making BMI was purchased by BA's parent company IAG from Lufthansa for £172.5 million in April.BA said the overall number of seats provided between both Scots airports and Heathrow would remain broadly the same as it will use bigger aircraft. A spokesman declined to provide figures to back up the claim.The airline has also announced a new service between Aberdeen and London City Airport which will operate three times a day from September 24, together with a number of new Heathrow services to Leeds Bradford, Belfast, Seoul in South Korea and Zagreb in Croatia.British Airways chief executive Keith Williams said: "BMI's integration into British Airways is really enabling us to grow our network as we promised, giving customers more flights to destinations we know they want to fly to."We're focusing on new routes such as Seoul, Leeds Bradford and Zagreb, more flights to popular destinations and creating more connections for the UK regions to our global network."BMI pulled its Heathrow to Glasgow flights in March 2011, handing BA a monopoly on the route, after claiming to be losing £1m a month on the service. BA later responded by adding 20 flights a week, boosting capacity by 25%, though it faced accusations fares had been forced up.The Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) said the cut in flights could harm businesses in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Garry Clark, SCC's head of policy, said: "The experience at Glasgow is flights to London remain extremely busy and it can be problematic to get booked, particularly late on, when a lot of business people have to book. Prices have also gone up."We have concerns about the ease of travel between Edinburgh and Aberdeen to London, which may be compromised, and we have concerns in the longer term over the cost of travel."Colin Keir, the SNP MSP whose Edinburgh Western constituency includes Edinburgh Airport, added: "When the BMI takeover went through, my colleagues and I in the SNP expressed our concern for the impact it would have on flights between Scotland and London."The fact that our fears appear to have been fully justified is incredibly frustrating. "I will be contacting BA to again make my disappointment at their actions clear to them."BA said it was providing 27,000 extra seats between Scotland and London compared to its previous winter schedule, though this figure does not take into account the capacity provided by BMI.A spokesman said it was misleading to compare the two figures as BMI would have otherwise ceased operating.However, Virgin Atlantic, which lost out in its bid to buy BMI, accused its rival of trying to hide cuts to its services.

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Scots Heathrow flights axed

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