Any news on how this is being funded - is the funding just being moved over from LGW, is it a fixed amount by year, per flight, per pax, etc?

Is a 40-minute turnround at Heathrow feasible?

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/heathrow-newquay-flights-flybe-taxpayers-subsidise-cornwall-airport-a8646691.html

Its funded by the DFT with taxpayer money and somewhat oddly Cornwall council.

Absolutely no objection to a direct Heathrow service but a taxpayer subsidy from the DFT ?

Any route should stand or fall on merit, if the Newquay service is so important the demand has to be there. You cannot prop up a service and distort the market with UK wide taxpayer monies whilst then claiming it's a vital air link, if nobody uses it, it's clearly not that vital. And why should Newquay claim a service over say Liverpool OR Durham?
Who decides who gets what ?

i presume that politically there was no mileage in giving consideration to a Liverpool service which is of course staunch Labour.

....and as for the local council chipping in. Clearly this is a better ways to spend ratepayers money than social care and keeping libraries open.

It smacks of a contrived marketing ploy between the DFT and HAL.

And where have 8 slots a day suddenly appeared from, is Derren Brown working approach ?

Last time I looked, Cornwall was the poorest region in England and the most remote from the capital (and with crap surface transport links). These conditions have been generally accepted as being reasons for a PSO. Are you saying that no forms of public transport should be subsidised and left to the free market? And do you not accept that there's a place for taxpayers money in promoting regional development?

Thanks - but this doesn't say whether this is the same as is currently being spent on the Gatwick flights (it impiles that it is more), or on what basis the money is paid out.

I was told that no money was spent on the LGW flights as they performed so well. The PSO was not a guaranteed sum of money but an underpin should the route not perform well. It did and so the public purse was not touched.

I have no idea yet if the LHR deal is the same but I'm also curious as to where the slots have come from as there are no remedy slots applicable for this route.

This rumour from early Oct has a little more credence now...

Who knows - they could flying for Virgin Regional by then.....

Virgin Atlantic and Flybe

The crew base won't happen. I wouldn't be hanging your hats on it.

I absolutely agree that Cornwall should have proper investment as indeed should Wales, East Anglia, The North East etc etc.

But with many local services on their knees this just smacks of a cheap shot at buying Tory votes in SW marginals. And buying the support of locals re Heathrow. If they realised they could benefit to the tune of say £1bn in direct investment or £1bn 250 miles away what do you think they would choose. It will take an awful lot of punters to generate that kind of indirect investment.

If we had some politicians who cared about the country rather than just London we might get somewhere.

Did anybody see last week's Apprentice, OMG one of the new CROSSRAIL stations looked like The Eden Project. And that is just one single station. It puts regional transport infastructure to shame.

When it's investment in London, Whitehall seem to sign off the finer things in life off with a flourish but for everywhere else it's gruel for supper everyday.

The DfT announcement does not specify, but I presume the new PSO-supported LHR slots are picked from the pool of ex-bmi remedy slots that, by happy coincidence, Flybe is operating. Win-win for the airline and LGW by removing a one-off "outlier" service.
Untrue. Besides, connectivity is for business and investment, not access to cheaper holidays.

I've been reflecting in the news of NQY-LHR route. On the face of it, this sounds to be great news.
I would throw some caution to thec wind.

When BA acquired Brymon, one of the first things that happened was to switch the route to the west country over to LGW. JER and IOM routes went the same way. They saw this course of action add commercially attractive.

And so it goes, as soon as these slots become eligible for other operations, you can be sure NQY will be the looser. Will LGW slots be available the service? No.

The transfer to LHR will drive increased connecting traffic, surely when a PSO was agreed it was to ensure that people living in the west country had adequate connectivity to London, to the capital for work etc. Therefore, I suggest that a move to LHR means that the PSO is subsiidising the airline to increase connecting psssengers. No such subsidy is available to other airlines or routes ex NQY for such an activity??

A PSO can be considered for a route "considered vital for the economic and social development of the region which the airport serves" - so connecting traffic certainly comes into the equation. As LHR is the main airport of the capital and economic centre, as well offering connections to the most destinations, it's the airport that most meets that definition.