p31 Air feb27 24/2/09 15:48 Page 31
ttglive.com
air news
EasyJet in £500k
claim over snow
Axe falls on regionals
EASYJET is threatening to sue Luton airport and
Chris Gray.
BMI managing director
Luton Borough Council unless they pay a com- THREE regional airports Peter Spencer said a fall in
bined sum of £500,000 compensation for losses have lost crucial parts of traffic combined with an
caused by snow earlier this month. their planned summer increase in BAA’s charges at
The airline has written to the airport and the season after Ryanair and Heathrow and the govern-
council, saying they failed in their duties by not BMI scrapped services. ment Air Passenger Duty
keeping the airport open. BMI is stopping its had made the services
EasyJet chief executive Andy Harrison claimed flights between Leeds/ unviable.
the airport’s handling of the snow amounted to a Bradford airport and “Instead of Heathrow,
breach of its contract with the airline because it Durham Tees Valley BMI is scrapping its Leeds Bradford–Durham link travellers in the north of
did not properly implement a “snow plan”, and airport from March 28, England will now have to
failed to prevent unnecessary disruption. The while Ryanair is scrapping 10 routes at Liverpool. rely on European airports such as Amsterdam,
airline claims the council failed in its duty to keep The move by BMI leaves passengers in Leeds Brussels and Frankfurt to connect to worldwide
the approach road to the airport open. and Durham airports’ catchment areas without a destinations,” he said.
Both organisations say they did everything local link through Heathrow to the international Another 50 jobs will be lost at Liverpool,
possible to limit the effects of the snow. air network. About 50 jobs will be lost. where Ryanair is cancelling planned summer
A Luton airport spokeswoman said it was in Hugh Lang, airports director at Peel Airports, services to Budapest, Faro Friedrichshafen,
talks with easyJet about the impact of the “ex- which owns Durham and Liverpool, said there Gdansk, Lodz, Paris, Salzburg, Santiago, Szczecin
ceptional” snowfall. Other airports had been was “deep disappointment”. and Valencia. The airport echoed Ryanair in
affected in the same way as Luton, she added. “There is still a substantial demand and need blaming APD and the weak pound for making the
Luton was criticised at the time because pas- for links between regions such as the north of routes unviable. It said Liverpool would benefit
sengers had to walk with their luggage uphill England and London and the wider international from a new KLM service to Amsterdam starting
from the railway station to reach the airport. air network,” he said. at the end of March.
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