Loganair, the UK’s largest regional airline, will expand at Heathrow from May thanks to slots secured under a lease arrangement with British Airways.
The carrier has also renewed its calls to the UK government to reform competition remedies to make slots at Heathrow permanently available for regional connectivity.
Loganair has secured access to 30 additional pairs of slots each week at the London hub under a lease arrangement with BA which takes effect in May.
The slots will enable Loganair to develop regional connectivity from domestic destinations, offering point-to-point access to London and a range of new worldwide connections via Heathrow.
The new routes to be launched will be announced in the coming days.
Details of the slot agreement were confirmed publicly today by Airport Coordination Limited, the designated coordinator for UK airports.
Jonathan Hinkles, Loganair’s chief executive, said: “Having taken these important first steps ourselves to provide new connectivity to and from the UK regions under this arrangement, it’s now essential for the UK government to initiate the process needed to reform competition remedies to provide access to Heathrow for the UK regions.”
Loganair said its campaign to reform Heathrow competition remedy slots began last month, and quickly gathered support from figures including John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow; Willie Walsh, Iata director-general; and Dr Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce.
Changes to Heathrow’s tariffs for regional aircraft operating on UK domestic routes took effect from January 1.
The airline said the new tariffs are “critical” to the viability of Loganair’s plans to provide regional connectivity at Heathrow.