Having just emerged from bankruptcy Northwest Airlines could be the first new US airline to move into Heathrow following the bilateral agreement between America and the EU. Northwest currently serves both Detroit and Minneapolis from Gatwick.
Leo van Wijk, ceo KLM and vice chairman of the Air France-KLM Board of Directors, confirmed to ABTN at the IATA airline gathering in Vancouver that his airline was in advanced discussions to convert some of his airline”s Holland slots at Heathrow to transatlantic.
”We have had a successful partnership with Northwest from Amsterdam for some time”, he said. ”It makes sense to change a 50-seat Fokker 50 operation to that of a big jet.”
The KLM/Northwest arrangement is a code share splitting costs and passengers might fly on a KLM or Northwest aircraft.
Van Wijk confirmed that similar discussions were taking place between KLM”s partner Air France and Delta. With the introduction of Eurostar services from St Pancras to Paris in November the loss of a few flights out of London to the French capital would not be noticed.
Delta is already established between Gatwick and New York, but it is its Atlanta flight that might move first. Air France would promote the flights as part of its system under the code share arrangement. West coast destinations in the US have not been ruled out.
Continental Airlines was also in discussion with its European Skyteam partners and they are also likely to come into Heathrow. Presently the airline serves Newark New York and Houston from Gatwick and has a code share in place with Virgin Atlantic.
Details regarding the balance of Skyteam airlines moving into Heathrow T4 from new April are still to be worked out and that schedule might affect the timing of the introduction of the new services. Air France is the largest of the Skyteam airlines to change, but with its present home T2 closing the move will relatively easy and should not put pressures on any refurbishment of T4 when British Airways moves out. KLM is already in T4.