flyingcrazy

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...ting-list.html

So Air China would run 4 flights a day from LHR-PEK, Emirates would run 7 a day to DXB and Etihad would run 5 a day to AUH, but that is only 3 of the 30 strong waiting list.

Does anybody know anyone else on the LHR waiting list?

UKtravelbear

BA,VS,DL,AC,LH,UA,AA for starters

And I freely admit I have missed dozens of others that would love slots

PDXNRTLHR

Heathrow may be more well known than Gatwick, and thought of as better (rightly or wrongly). However, there are plenty of people for whom Gatwick is much more convenient. I would fly from Gatwick more often if they started having more flights to non-holiday destinations. I miss the days of American carriers flying from Gatwick, and hope carriers (and travellers) stop seeing Gatwick as an airport only for LLCs and flights to third-tier countries.

rwoman

Gatwick!?!

Oh yes, that airport down south...which is actually much improved these days...although LHR is far closer in my case.

However, when I came back in July (DXB-IST-LGW) on TK, the passport control area was still a mess at LGW's North Terminal...just as it was when I often flew ATL-LGW.

BearX220

I don't see how LGW can help but grow and diversify as LHR bumps up against its capacity limits. And in truth it gets an unwarranted rap as a junior airport, solely because of miles from central London. But you can spend 30 minutes on Heathrow Connect to reach LHR or 30 minutes on the Gatwick Express to reach LGW. Not much in it really.

eghansen

All of these thoughts miss the point.

Gatwick is not a solution in its present form because it only has one runway. Along with Heathrow, it is also running at capacity. At least one new runway needs to be built somewhere.

Secondly, it makes no difference which airport is more convenient to London - Heathrow or Gatwick. If these airports were only used for O&D traffic to London, they would have lots of excess capacity.

Heathrow is a hub for British Airways. Hubs by their nature must be huge. You cannot split up traffic for a hub between two airports. I have a friend who flies through Heathrow airport several times per year because of the convenient nonstop from SAN to LHR with connections to the rest of Europe. AFAIK, he has never actually ended his trip in London.

Without a hub at Heathrow, there would be much less service. If only O&D pax from England flew on BA from LHR to SAN, the route would lose money. It only works because of the transfer passengers.

dcpdxtrans

+1. Most ironic is I was just having this conversation with a client only yesterday.

BearX220

Well, that's one airline. But for the vast majority at Heathrow, LHR is an O/D point. Many of them could easily move to LGW without major inconvenience to their passengers.

Until the 1990s Pan Am and TWA were the only two US carriers allowed into LHR; the others -- which at one time or another included USAir, Piedmont, PeoplExpress, National, Air Florida, Delta, Continental, etc., etc. -- were forced to LGW. Then as now Gatwick was seen as a less prestigious ghetto, for mostly subjective / fuzzy reasons. But serving LGW didn't harm the customers of a Piedmont or National; they weren't going anywhere but London. Outside of alliance connections (AA has a case for serving LHR because of BA codeshares, etc.) there are still numerous carriers gumming up LHR for not terribly good reasons.

I don't think I've been to Gatwick in this century, but I never minded it. Perhaps the pendulum will swing back.

davidviolin

Stop all the complaining and build a second runway at LGW already!

flyingcrazy

It is a no brainer. A third runway at Heathrow is the most needed infrastructure project in the UK. A second runway at Gatwick is also important but I think LHR 3 should take priority.

But does anybody know who these 30 airlines from Latin America, Asia and North America are???? Perhaps LAN?

iluvcruising2

Politics, all boils down to politics. I hope something gets done soon otherwise London's current position as an aviation hub will be severely threatened.

BearX220

I think that is already happening. Of the four big Eurohubs LHR is already the second least desirable transfer point. Behind AMS and FRA, ahead of truly awful CDG.

gypsyjaney

Couldn't agree more about CDG, which I try to avoid at all costs.

Raffles

Is this a pointless newspaper article or not?

It is rather like asking 'who would like to live in Chelsea?' or 'would you like to drive a Mercedes?'.

Of course you say yes. As we are not about to build a 6 runway airport ...

However, as there are always slots for sale from anyone who wants to pony up the market rate, it is a relatively moot point.

Interesting to see BA wants more slots. Because, of course, it was BA who recently sold a slot pair to Qatar for $20m because, as either Willie or Keith said, they fancied the money.

Let's imagine that Heathrow does build a new runway and, overnight, pretty much everyone moves out of Gatwick and over to Heathrow. Where is the benefit in that? London as a whole gains no new routes, people who live near Gatwick have further to travel (there is no real benefit if you live near Heathrow as these are all additional services in the main) and the noise etc over West London goes up hugely.

Gagravarr

I know quite a few people here aren't big CDG fans, but one thing I think Air France + CDG do well is TGVAir. You book a "flight" to/from one of the TGV connected French cities via CDG (which is often less than the cost of one just to/from CDG!), and it includes the TGV leg there/back. Turn up at the station, head to the TGVAir desk and they give you your TGV ticket, and you're whisked from city centre to CDG with a short walk to check in. Loads and loads of services, much quicker and easier than getting from the city centre out to a small regional airport, waiting for less frequent flight, security, transit etc.

If you sorted out a high speed link from Heathrow to HS1 (not sure who'd pay for it, and there's the extra passport / security checks in place that TGVAir doesn't have), but with through ticketing + associated protection you could easily then ditch the Paris and Brussels flights in favour of putting people onto a "plane operated by Eurostar" or similar. There's about 20 slot pairs free right there! Even if they only went for half the price of the one that BA sold to Qatar, you've got 200 million to fund the infrastructure + a few extra trains.

Assuming HS2 eventually gets built, if you included a link to Heathrow and ran a sensible number of trains there with through ticketing much like TGVAir offers, there's probably then another 20 slot pairs available for current domestic flights which'd be under 2 hours by high speed train.

It would need some joined-up thinking, some copying of the French, and some pragmatism, so I can't see it ever happening