Heathrow has attacked Gatwick’s claims that it can support long-haul services to emerging markets in its latest submission to the Airports Commission.
The UK’s hub airport has drawn attention to a string of long-haul routes from Gatwick which have been cancelled over the last five years.
But Gatwick hit back at these claims by saying that it serves more destinations than Heathrow and that some of the long-routes routes were cancelled when Gatwick was still owned by the same company as Heathrow, then known as BAA.
Airlines to axe routes from Gatwick in the last two years include Hong Kong Airlines, Air Asia X, Korean Air and US Airways. Meanwhile Air China has suspended its flights to Beijing for the winter and Garuda Indonesia’s Jakarta service has been postponed until next year.
Heathrow’s chief executive Colin Matthews said: “There is no need for a crystal ball to test Gatwick’s claims that it can provide long-haul flights when we have the hard evidence of 10 years of failure.
“While Heathrow has been full, airline after airline has tried without success to make long-haul flights from Gatwick work.
“Gatwick doesn’t have a flight to New York, one of the world’s most important business and financial centres, so it’s not surprising it can’t support routes to the less popular and more distant destinations that will be critical to future trade.”
Heathrow said that it did not oppose the growth of Gatwick “as long as it is alongside building an expanded hub airport”.
A spokeswoman for Gatwick said that it serves more UK and international destinations than Heathrow.
“Heathrow is clearly worried about having to compete for the first time in London,” she said.
“Gatwick remains absolutely focused on securing new short and long destinations to the UK as we have shown with Moscow, Vietnam, Istanbul and Jakarta - bringing more choice, destinations and better fares to UK passengers.
“A significant number of the airlines which have left Gatwick over the last five years occurred during BAA’s ownership. These changes reflect the competitive nature of the aviation market. Heathrow itself has lost 15 long haul services to key destinations since April last year including Singapore, Mumbai and Bangkok.”
Both airports have put their cases for expansion to the Airports Commission, headed by Sir Howard Davies, which is looking at the issue of the UK’s hub capacity.
The commission is due to draw up a short-list of potential solutions by the end of the year, although the final recommendation will not be made until after the next general election in the summer of 2015.