Donkey Duke
Yes, LHR is busiest international airport in the world, but it certainly isn't the largest. Everything, and I do mean everything, is bursting at the seems at LHR. The apron is congested, the terminals are groaning under the strain of way more pax than they were ever intended to handle and the runways are even worse!Yes LHR has two parallel runways, one for arrivals, one for departures, and I stand to be corrected by any LHR ATCOs here but I believe they're up to 40+ movements per hour on each runway at peak times. If you can find a way to squeeze more movements into that runway then there are some airport managers who'll be delighted to meet you. In short, there really aren't 66 slots per day free at LHR. BA aren't withdrawing from many European routes at LHR, and the few slots being freed up are being used by long haul services transferring from LGW. I doubt we'll really see EasyJet operating from LHR to Inverness, but then why should a DL service to ATL have a higher priority for a slot than a domestic service to one of the poorest served regions of the UK? I bet EasyJet could shift more passengers daily between Inverness and LHR than DL could move between LHR and ATL!