BMI’s decision to withdraw flights between Heathrow and Glasgow will be damaging to business, the Scottish Passenger Agents Association warned.
The SPAA pledged to continue to lobby hard for action – via the government and BAA – to ensure that existing services from Edinburgh, Aberdeen and the Scottish Highlands and Islands “remain undiminished.”
SPAA president Brian Potter voiced the association’s dismay at the decision to suspend Bmi flights on the long-established domestic trunk route from March 27.
“Scotland’s business and leisure travellers need and deserve to have real choice when travelling to and through London – but as of March 27 that will no longer exist on the Glasgow-Heathrow route,” he said.
“The recent publicity regarding the threat to this vital, but already loss-making, service has evidently come too late to affect what is a commercial decision by BMI ,made all the easier by the proposed increase in Heathrow passenger fees.”
Potter added: “Whilst we recognise that the new charges at Heathrow are not the sole reason for BMI’s withdrawal, the higher fares likely to result will inevitably affect all UK domestic travellers, further reducing already declining passenger numbers.
“This will be damaging for business across the board – government, BAA, the airlines and passengers. Scotland’s economy needs services like the BMI Glasgow-Heathrow one.”
Potter described the move as “bizarre” because domestic services are vital to Heathrow.
“It claims to focus on developing as a hub for the future, rather than a point-to-point airport – so chasing away UK domestic air services will hardly assist BAA in its pursuit of that objective,” he said.
“Meanwhile, it’s hardly surprising that, following the government’s decision to abandon plans for a third runway at Heathrow, airlines are looking to maximise their operating revenues by using take-off and landing slots for more profitable international services.”