Loganair Renews Call For Permanent Heathrow Slots For UK Regionals

Having secured access to London Heathrow slots, UK carrier Loganair is calling on the government to reform competition remedies to make Heathrow slots permanently available for UK regional connectivity.     

The regional airline on March 28 said it had secured access to 30 additional pairs of slots each week at Heathrow under a lease arrangement with British Airways, which takes effect in May 2023. Loganair said the new slots will enable it to develop regional connectivity with point-to-point access into London itself and worldwide connections via Heathrow.  

Loganair will announce details of the specific routes in the coming days once formalities are completed.  

“We’re delighted to be growing our operations at Heathrow,” CEO Jonathan Hinkles 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 wants the UK government to initiate action with the European Commission to repatriate control of competition remedies dating back to 2012 under which the Heathrow slots were previously made available to other airlines, predominantly for domestic routes.  

Changes to Heathrow’s tariffs for regional aircraft operating on UK domestic routes, which took effect Jan. 1, are critical to the viability of Loganair’s plans to provide regional connectivity at Heathrow, the airline added.   

Loganair—currently undergoing a fleet renewal process with plans to replace its last five Saab 340s with five additional ATRs by August—is also up for sale, with news expected later in 2023, Hinkles said in February. 

The Glasgow-based airline is the UK’s biggest regional carrier.  It operates a fleet of 38 aircraft in total and carrying over 1.5 million passengers a year across a network of 95 routes which link the UK, the Isle of Man, Ireland and Scandinavia.