The £5 dropoff charge is not administered by a ticket man at a gate, but only by online payment, the most inconvenient for the casual visitor of all.

For those who have not encountered them, such schemes (as you get at car parks etc) are run by just a handful of organisations, typically from a PO Box number, with all contact in writing, no phone number or emails. They have hard-sell sales teams offering their "services" to anyone with a car parking area, who won't take No for an answer. They typically make a great play about all the money they collect will be passed on to the owner, Heathrow here, because what they really want is those who haven't paid, who they levy huge penalties on which they pocket themselves, which ratchet up by the week, with bailiff action to follow if unpaid. That is what makes them the real money, via an automated process. It's how to hack your customers off, 1.01, all worked around weasel words such as "preventing congestion", "saving space for real customers", etc.

If the manager responsible won't entertain them their sales team then worm round to find directors etc, where they can imply that the manager is "leaving money on the table". I'm sure Heathrow has been in their sights for ages.

If Grant Schapps had any spine he would have squelched this pronto.

Every major airport in the UK does this. Most major town centre parking is similar. Many Tesco car parks use the same setup. It's literally part and parcel of our daily lives, and with the size of the hole in their finances, it is clearly not responsible for HAL to be the only major airport NOT to do this. Personally I'd use the short term car parks and say a proper goodbye, and yes you do have to pay. But guys, aviation is in a viscious circle given where we are, I don't agree with anyone charging just to drop off but they can and they do. It's the same business model of un-bundling that means you can get a super cheap seat if you don't care about where you sit or check a bag. It's not greed at all, it's not like they're making enormous amounts of money.....

Will they drop it when they get back to these dizzy heights?
”In the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020, Heathrow Airport reported just over 1.1 billion British pounds in revenue” (and around 153M profit)

Possibly you didn't notice that the "super cheap seats" are in fact much the same cost as formerly with seat allocation and/or bags. Or they don't exist when you (or anyone else) wish to travel. There was even an industry insider here not long ago who proposed unbundling the EU261/2004 overbooking compensation if you hadn't paid extra for it as a form of insurance, until a few of us explained it.

I agree that the 'unbundled' price scheme is now accepted across the UK. I often refer to this method by using the name of a well known LCC ... The car industry has used this for years and steadily moved the 'striking point' as low as they can. We will not see a return to a fully bundled pricing scheme for many years - although it WILL happen. But, for the moment, we already have 30 years worth of customers used to this way of pricing.

We see the same method used by politicians with what are now called stealth taxes. They do not want to increase basic tax rates but need to raise more tax, so they charge for things that were previously free. Local govt have been forced down the same path.

Except of course, there are some industries busily bundling up, like Sky TV and all the tour operators who sell "all inclusive" holidays.

Or indeed this industry where fully bundled fares are extensively available from all legacies, especially from Heathrow in Business cabins and even fully flexible economy (Often the same price !)

General slot query..as the airport/country opens up ..especially after today’s announcement..what happens to all the “fill in slot occupiers” that have been allocated over the last few months ?

Surely B777s are worth more than small emb type aircraft?

Depends on the agreements I guess. Still a long long way to go before LHR needs them all back. There was talk before of BA leasing out slots for three years. It’s usually by season at the least.

According to the revised slot rules introduced as a result of the pandemic, slots returned by historic operators were protected. Although any return opened availability to new operators, such reallocation will have been temporary, on a season by season basis. The new operator is likely not to have been able to claim a rolling guarantee to access such slots in the future.

There must be a division between those who will sometime in the future come back to using their slots (eg BA, who will always use everything they can at Heathrow), and those who are deciding they will never come back.

Those who are relinquishing, wholly or partially, services at Heathrow, have for years now sold them on to other operators wanting to come. Quite a number have put a (somewhat notional, but substantial) value on these, which they regard as part of the value of their business. How is this going to work ? If they don't come back have they lost this value ? If they come back for just a short time and then sell the slots is that OK ? Is this a new form of slot sitting ?

Anyone know if Shenzhen Airlines are coming back?

Blue Air of Romania will operate LHR-Nice from 16th Sept, 4x pw (Thu, Fri, Sun, Mon)

Is that using the bmi remedy slots?

I think it’s just using the short term corona slots. Same as it’s recent routes to Bucharest and somewhere else in Romania.

Blue Air currently operate from LHR direct to 3 Romanian destinations: Bucharest, Cluj and Iasi.

Saw a Sky Express NEO departing to Athens today. Another short term visitor?

Daily except Saturdays, started at the beginning of August.

Thanks. I've clearly not been paying attention!

New routes with BA from July 2022 to the Azores - 1x weekly to Ponta Delgada (Sat) and 1x weekly to Terceira (Sun)
Based on the climate of the Azores (best weather is June-August), and the likelihood for this route to attract those who are retired (or at least don't have children under the age of 18), I'm wondering if this route should perhaps be started in June instead