{"id":93073,"date":"2018-06-21T08:54:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T08:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=5056a3e3d0f304a2d9914fa1739ad6c2"},"modified":"2018-06-21T08:54:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T08:54:00","slug":"news-story-government-to-protect-regional-routes-to-heathrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=93073","title":{"rendered":"News story: Government to protect regional routes to Heathrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<ul>\n<li>government ready to act for the first time to reserve slots for domestic flights<\/li>\n<li>Heathrow expansion expected to strengthen existing routes and provide new connections with domestic airports<\/li>\n<li>new competition on existing routes could lead to lower prices<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>The government has confirmed it is prepared to intervene to reserve slots at Heathrow for flights to airports in nations and regions around the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> if expansion goes ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Public Service Obligations (<abbr title=\"public service obligations\">PSOs<\/abbr>) will be put in place by the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> government to protect routes if required, which would also exempt them from Air Passenger Duty.<\/p>\n<p>It would mark the first time that flights from Heathrow to regional airports have been safeguarded, offering reassurance to people living around the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> that these important links will remain in place.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"public service obligations\">PSOs<\/abbr> already exist to protect flights from one city to another but reserving flights specifically from domestic airports to Heathrow would ensure direct links to the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr>\u2019s hub airport, opening up vital connections with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>The news follows confirmation that the government wants about 15% of the new capacity at an expanded Heathrow to be used for domestic flights. And it comes as the government confirms that Scotland can expect to benefit from an extra 100 flights a week to and from Heathrow if a third runway is built.<\/p>\n<p>Extra capacity could not only help secure and expand the number of existing routes to <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> nations and regions but also be used for new connections.<\/p>\n<p>Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Heathrow is situated in the south-east of England, but the benefits of expansion will be felt throughout the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>About 15% of the new capacity will be used for flights to destinations within the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> or Crown dependencies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">And now we are going even further by confirming that the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> government will act to protect domestic flights from Heathrow for the first time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Routes could also be reserved for specific times to ensure they deliver services for passengers when they most need them, for example early morning flights which will cater for businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Further details about the use of <abbr title=\"public service obligations\">PSOs<\/abbr> to protect flights from Heathrow to other specific airports will be set out in the green paper on the <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/aviationstrategy.campaign.gov.uk\/\">Aviation Strategy<\/a> later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Additional capacity at Heathrow is also expected to encourage competition between airlines, bringing down prices for British passengers.<\/p>\n<p>easyJet and Flybe have already outlined new routes they would expect to serve from an expanded Heathrow. easyJet also earlier this month confirmed that they intend to launch new flights to <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> airports and introduce competition on existing routes, lowering fares by up to 30%.<\/p>\n<p>And it is not just passengers that could stand to benefit from a new runway. On an average day Heathrow carries \u00a3360 million of freight, making it the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr>\u2019s biggest port by value.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/76048\/960-airports-nps-more-exports.jpg\" alt=\"More exports: expansion would almost double freight capacity at Heathrow.\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Expanding Heathrow would also bring opportunities for more jobs and apprenticeships in addition to the economic boost it could hand businesses and exports. Up to 114,000 local jobs and 5,000 apprenticeships could be created as a result of expansion.<\/p>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_1015\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Aviation and maritime media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Media enquiries<\/span><br \/>\n              020 7944 3021\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Out of hours media enquiries<\/span><br \/>\n              020 7944 4292\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Switchboard<\/span><br \/>\n              0300 330 3000\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Slots will be reserved for flights from Heathrow to UK regional airports if expansion goes ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}