Heathrow airport today launched on an attack on Gatwick as the gloves came off between the rival airports in the debate over a new runway for the southeast.
Heathrow boss Colin Matthews published a list of 20 long-haul airlines that have pulled out of Gatwick in the past five years as evidence that the Sussex airport will not deliver routes to emerging markets.
In an unprecedented outburst, Mr Matthews said the list provided “hard evidence of failure” by Gatwick to fly to destinations that would deliver long-term growth to the UK economy.
The list, which follows the revelation earlier this month that Air China has suspended flights from Gatwick to Beijing over the winter, includes Air Asia X, which scrapped a route to Kuala Lumpur last year. Korean Air, which no longer flies to Seoul from the West Sussex airport, is also named.
In a letter to the Davies commission, he wrote: “There is no need for a crystal ball to test Gatwick’s claims that it can provide long-haul flights when we have the hard evidence of 10 years of failure. While Heathrow has been full, airline after airline has tried without success to make long-haul flights from Gatwick work.
“Gatwick doesn’t have a flight to New York, one of the world’s most important business and financial centres, so it’s not surprising it can’t support routes to the less popular and more distant destinations that will be critical to future trade.”
Gatwick want a second runway that would form part of a “constellation” of three two-runway airports.
The West Sussex airport has accused Heathrow of “over-exaggerating” the importance of a hub, where airlines make use of transfer traffic to fill flights.
Gatwick boss Stewart Wingate said a “rattled” Matthews proved that Heathrow were “on the run”.
