Isn't it amazing the vested interests at work now to convince us that just about nothing at Gatwick can work or is ever likely to work. Almost 40m pax pa are using Lgw now but we are told that these are mainly low fare wanting a cheap weekend tourists. So why would any airline bother providing any service at all, no money to be made here. Meanwhile, up the road at Lhr, you don't get low fare tourists on flights there, just high yielding business travellers. We are led to believe that few connect through Lgw, yet I did that myself last month using EI from Bhd then BA to Bodrum. There were quite a few on my flight connecting with BA to Orlando. My wife and daughter followed me on the same route a few days later. When mention is made of connecting traffic at Lgw it is questioned.
What I do see is a massive effort to protect big interests up at Lhr. The airport itself, airlines, executive clubs etc have all made big investments there and are now trying to protect themselves by convincing as many as possible of the poor prospects for Lgw.
So the American carriers that used Lgw for decades lost money but decided to provide a service to us anyway? Or is it that they didn't make as much money as they would like?
Did Virgin and BA fly these routes for decades making a loss but did so out of the kindness of their hearts? If they were making a loss, was this due to the yield they could get or was the problem with them, costs too high?
Air China and Korean are quoted as examples of airlines trying to make new services work, but couldn't. How could they tell after one season yet we are told that it can take up to two years to see if a route is going to work. Was the issue that the Lgw services damaged the Lhr services more than was expected? Vietnam moved to Lhr recently, the Caa stats don't show this big increase in numbers we were led to believe would happen. Yet Icelandair and Turkish Airlines are never mentioned at Lgw. Maybe they haven't yet found out how much money they are losing at Lgw.
The world changes but there seems little recognition of that when it comes to possible success for Lgw. I get the impression there are many scared of a possible new competitor down the road. I hope Lgw is a major success, along with Norwegian.
One thing I know I don't like is where business thinks it has an entitlement and no one else should challenge. That is where the paying customer ends up being worse off.