UK Airlines denounce airports’ ‘virtual hub’

Ever since the coalition government ruled out allowing new runways at Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted airports, ministers have been accused by the aviation industry of lacking a credible policy to deal with rising long-term demand for air travel.

In theory, the ambitious proposal to integrate Heathrow and Gatwick through a high-speed rail link could form the solution, but the industry has quickly denounced the idea.

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Ministers have been told by business that a new aviation policy was badly needed as part of efforts to kick-start the flagging economy. A report published last month said the UK was at serious risk of missing out on trade with emerging markets worth £14bn during the next decade because Heathrow was operating at full capacity and could not expand.

These findings about the capacity crunch in the south-east explain why ministers are coming under pressure to speed up their policymaking. They previously promised an aviation framework by 2013.

Ministers may now be focusing their minds, but on Friday airlines and airport operators lined up to express grave misgivings about the interest in creating a “virtual hub” between Heathrow and Gatwick.

British Airways said linking Heathrow and Gatwick “does absolutely nothing to address the ever more pressing issue of the south-east’s need to have more airport capacity in order for the UK to remain globally competitive”.

BAA, Heathrow’s owner, said the idea “faces insurmountable technical, operational, political and financial challenges, and would take many years to deliver”. A rail industry executive, who declined to be named, said it would be difficult to build a high-speed network between Heathrow and Gatwick.

The government is holding to its view that it will not allow the construction of more runways at Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted.

However, ministers think additional airport capacity may be found by linking Heathrow and Gatwick. Following the construction of a high-speed rail link between the two airports, the idea would be for Gatwick to focus on short and medium haul flights to and from Europe.

Some of these Gatwick flights could then provide important feeder traffic to Heathrow, which would focus on long-haul flights.

Gatwick has some room to accommodate extra flights because it is operating at 80 per cent capacity. In theory, more capacity could be found if Ryanair and EasyJet, the low-cost airlines, ended their operations at Gatwick and concentrated on Stansted and other airports, such as Luton.

Ryanair and EasyJet might choose to sell their take off and landing slots at Gatwick if they increased in value because of a high-speed rail link with Heathrow.

But Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, said there was “no way of moving the budget airlines out of Gatwick”. He added: “There won’t be a high-speed rail link between Heathrow and Gatwick in my lifetime. The cost of it would be prohibitive.”

EasyJet, which dismissed the idea of linking Heathrow and Gatwick, said: “EasyJet will fight any attempt to force us out of Gatwick all the way.”

(Via FINANCIAL TIMES)