Originally Posted by
Skipness One Foxtrot
Are you for real? You think the CEO of a major airline can’t see an airport desperate for a lifeline and knows he has them by the balls? I am also a marketing analyst who would say that the UK has had too much airport capacity in a fragmented state devoid of strategy for decades. Well guess what, the bubble just burst.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52566030
I’m not Mystic Meg, and yes I am a dour Scottish pessimist, so am not a fanboy. I support LHR as a national asset rather than a local airport like say SOU/BOU or LTN/STN, NCL/MME, MAN/LPL, PIK/GLA/EDI. Look at the overlap, that duplication won’t survive this downturn, this is the biggest recession anyone has alive has seen. I truly find it bonkers that somehow Wizz Air taking on BA at LGW is even registering?
Are you for real? Virgin temporarily withdrawing from LGW may be a big deal for nostalgia and prestige reasons, but they’re the ninth largest carrier at Gatwick with as little as 2-3 flights a day on some days. I’d hardly say LGW are “desperate for a lifeline”, don’t be so dramatic.
If you scroll down the very same news article that you posted, you’ll also see that after the “biggest recession anyone alive has ever seen”, they’re forecasting a 15% growth next year. The CEO of BA himself has said that demand will be at 2019 levels by 2023 (quite where he got his crystal ball from I don’t know, but given that everything he says will be the most extreme case in order to justify has mass culling of staff, it’ll probably be sooner). How does he expect to meet that demand in three years if he’s given all the LGW slots to easyJet?
Use some common sense. Virgin and Norwegian have made it clear they’re not giving up their slots and BA would sooner fly an A319 from Gatwick to Heathrow and back 10x per day to protect their slots than allow them to be swallowed up by easyJet. And anyone who believes they wouldn’t has a short memory.
BBC NEWS | UK | Green anger at 'ghost flights'
Wizz Air are not taking on BA. Wizz will more than likely continue along their path of expanding services at LGW with flights at times when slots are readily available, and remember there are slots readily available at Gatwick. It’s only the morning departures and the late evening arrivals where the airport is largely restricted.