Uniteds new Denver service has gone seaosnal and Continental exchanged one B767-200 for a B757-200 as the range of the 767 was needed elsewhere. The capacity is identical. NWA have dropped their new route to Seattle as it didn't work.
The market wants to serve LHR over LGW on the atlantic every time. The only reason BA have any long haul at LGW is simply due to capacity constraints at LHR. DL are also moving to LHR lock stock and barrell as soon as they can source the slots.
So we say one of two things.
1) Allow the market to decide in which case LHR wins every time due to higher yields
2) Go back to regulated air travel a la 1970s with politicians and bureaucrats telling the airlines where they must fly to.
No one is preventing other airports being served but LHR is a world airport losing connectivity year on year. So either expand it, or let it wither. In an ideal world we wouldn't be expanding an airport there but we are where we are. Boris Island is a non starter due to obvious wildlife issues, costs of building an island on Western European labour costs and the high yield catchment area being down the M4 corridor on the wrong side of London.
LGW is open for business but business chooses Heathrow for good reasons.
I know West London well. Being concreted over, is an improvement to parts of that borough. We need the capacity now, or 1997 at the earliest. ( *cough* ) Some of the schemes proposed above would gift jobs, routes, trade and business to the French and the Germans and in case you haven't noticed, the economy is getting VERY Darwinistic. Time to wisen up, build the damn thing, create the jobs, put the infrastructure in. I'm no fan of Brown but he got this one spot on.
Last edited by Skipness One Echo; 20th Jan 2009 at 12:24.