Flybe starts flights from Edinburgh and Aberdeen to Heathrow from March 2017

Date added: 20 December, 2016

New regular flights from Aberdeen and Edinburgh to Heathrow, starting on 26th March 2017, have been announced by Flybe. These will be Flybe’s first flights to Heathrow. There will be 4 flights from Edinburgh on weekdays, and 3 from Aberdeen, making a total of 40 weekly flights per week. They will be using slots made available to Flybe at the insistence of the European Commission, after the takeover of BMI. Airlines hope to get Scottish passengers to link into long haul flights from Heathrow, with all the usual claims about economic benefits etc. Simon Calder says Flybe will inherit the dormant Heathrow slots and will challenge British Airways on the Edinburgh and Aberdeen routes. The fares may fall due to the competition. But the BA flights will be faster. The air fares could be around £85 to £130 for a return ticket.

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Flybe starts new Scottish flights to Heathrow

20.12.2016 (BBC)

New regular flights from Aberdeen and Edinburgh to London Heathrow have been announced by Flybe.

The regional airline said it is the first time it will serve the largest London airport.

There will be four flights from Edinburgh on weekdays, and three from Aberdeen, starting on 26 March 2017.

The slots at Heathrow were made available to Flybe at the insistence of the European Commission, after the takeover of BMI.

Including weekend departures, there will be more than 40 scheduled flights from Edinburgh and Aberdeen to Heathrow each week.

Flybe Executive Chairman Simon Laffin said: “We are delighted to announce our first flights to London Heathrow, significantly enhancing our UK domestic route network and offering even better links between Scotland and London.

“The new routes to Heathrow complement the existing ones we operate to London City, and will benefit our business customers and customers in Scotland who want to connect with our long haul codeshare partners.”

Heathrow Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye added: “Improving the connections into Heathrow from all around the UK will be vital in helping to secure the economic future of communities in every corner of the nation.

“Today’s announcement shows that the measures we’re introducing, such as the £10 reduction on domestic passenger charges, are already working to secure vital links.”

He went on: “With Flybe based at Terminal 2, it also means new, unique direct access from Heathrow to markets such Colombia, Taipei and Auckland.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-38376877

Flybe is allowing more than two hours for Aberdeen-Heathrow flights

Renewed competition on two key domestic air routes from Scotland to Heathrow has been welcomed — but scrutiny of the schedules shows that the newly arriving flights will be much slower than British Airways’ existing services.

From 26 March 2017, Flybe will inherit the dormant slots at Heathrow for flights to and from Aberdeen and Edinburgh. The Exeter-based airline will challenge British Airways on those routes, and some test bookings suggest that fares are already falling as a result. But BA will have a distinct edge over the newcomer in terms of speed.

On the Edinburgh-Heathrow route, the quickest British Airways flight is 85 minutes, with the average journey scheduled for one-and-a-half hours. But all three daily Flybe services will take two hours. The fastest train between the Scottish and English capitals takes only four hours.

The distance between Edinburgh and Heathrow airports is 333 miles. The schedules published by airlines are “block times”, from pushing back at one airport to reaching the stand at the destination.

The actual flying time for a British Airways Airbus jet is less than an hour if no holding is required before landing at Heathrow, but slack is built in for queuing on the ground and “stacking” over the Home Counties waiting for a landing slot.

The aircraft that Flybe will use for the link is believed to be the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, a propellor plane with a maximum cruising speed of 414mph — which the maker calls a “jet-like” speed. The top cruising speed of BA’s Airbus A320 is 533mph, about 30 per cent higher. But on a relatively short hop, aircraft are in the cruise for a short spell.

On the 403-mile trip from Aberdeen to Heathrow, Flybe is allowing two hours and 15 minutes, compared with as little as 90 minutes on BA.

Analysis of fares suggests that travellers will benefit from the new competition. The Independent checked Sunday out/Monday back journeys from Aberdeen to Heathrow in March 2017. On the first three weekends, when British Airways has the route to itself, BA’s lowest return fare is £129. But on the final weekend, when Flybe starts up, the BA fare falls to £85 — just £1 more than Flybe.

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/flights-heathrow-aberdeen-edinburgh-flybe-ba-british-airways-a7487121.html

Flybe starts flights from Edinburgh and Aberdeen to Heathrow from March 2017

Flybe starts new Scottish flights to Heathrow

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