Gatwick calls for reduced Heathrow winter schedule
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The chief executive at Gatwick Airport has called for Heathrow to operate a smaller schedule in winter so it can cope with conditions.
In a letter to Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin, Stewart Wingate, chief executive at Gatwick proposed the Government uses his airport, Heathrow and Stansted during December to February to reduce the amount of air passengers affected by flight cancellations.
He said flights could be moved to Gatwick and Stansted during the three months as a means to help solve the south east’s capacity issues and ensure travellers can get to and from London.
It comes after Heathrow was criticised for cancelling many flights during the snowy conditions in the last week, while Gatwick and Stansted have continued to operate with minimal disruption.
“It just cannot be right that passengers are being asked to accept apologies for pre-emptive flight cancellations. Huge numbers of business meetings and holidays will have been impacted and misery caused to travellers,” said Wingate. “The over-scheduling of flights at Heathrow during the winter period should stop, but we also need to maintain and grow our connectivity to the world.”
He added: “Clearly in extreme winter weather conditions a level of disruption at airports is to be expected but we should all be able to be open for business when confronted with normal winter weather conditions as we saw this weekend.”
Airlines have criticised Wingate’s comments, saying flight operations are their decision and not airports or the Government.
“It should not be for airports, or the Government, to dictate where airlines and passengers fly. The major cost of delays and cancellations are borne by the airlines and their customers. The airline community is working with a huge range of stakeholders who all play a role in keeping aircraft flying,” said Dale Keller, chief executive of BAR UK. “It is simply not cost effective for airlines to split operations over different airports for short periods and it is unlikely their customers would want this either.”
