Don't jump the gun just yet I believe at least one airline sniffed about for them
Any idea which one(s)?
Sorry to see it end; it's just a pity that it was basically an unsuccessful operation. There are so many regional routes - LBA, LPL, NCL, INV, JER etc - crying out for links to LHR, yet VS chose routes where they'd be in competition with a well established existing carrier.
Bearing in mind the paucity of domestic links to/from LHR it would have made sense to require the slots to be used for domestic routes
NOT linked to LHR, such as the ones mentioned above (except LBA and NCL which are linked to LHR) and many others.
Yet it was the EU that required them to be on ABZ and EDI, and/or CAI (in the middle of a revolution for most of the time), DME (sanctions imposed and very bad UK-Russia bilateral relations), NCE and/or RUH.
VS
did not have the choice to do any of the many places in the UK that are crying out for a link to LHR, and this will be the case if another carrier comes on board in summer 2016.
So, if Little Red had continued to operate the routes until Summer 2016 they would have been awarded the slots permanently*, is that correct?
And at that point the slots would no longer have be bound to the specified routes but to any non-long-haul service?
Yes and yes,
AFAIK.
Seems odd to have walked-away from receiving such a saleable asset with absolutely nothing to show, just for the sake of six more months.
Indeed, but for the sake of a year, up to the end of summer 2016. Maybe it was done on instructions from Atlanta?
Given the Davies findings this is clearly the first class opportunity that has for so long been missing, namely the opportunity to provide those much sought after missing flights to the region's is it not ?
Humberside IOM Durham Exeter even Plymouth ( subject to the grass being cut).
Agree that it would have been a good idea and would possibly have brought a new carrier to LHR, maybe one with suitable aircraft for thin routes.
Unfortunately UK governments have handed over the running of the country. Call it "outsourcing that cannot be revoked" if you like. A burning building with no fire escapes may be more accurate.
The EU have decided: either (1) the restricted set of destinations that they've decided on by a carrier other than BA, or (2) if no one takes these up they go back to BA.