Why does Inverness want its
Heathrow flights back?
There are social and economic reasons for providing remote regions like the Scottish Highlands with good airlinks to the rest of the nation and the world...

This area is heavily dependant upon tourism for its survival.

Heathrow serves 204 international destinations and Gatwick serves just 160. Tourists travelling to the Highlands from overseas will face an extra journey from Heathrow to Gatwick (via bus or taxi). The extra expense of time and money as well as the possibility of needing to stay overnight to catch Gatwick or Heathrow flights is bound to be a big disincentive to travelling here.

Travelling into Central London? The cost of a Travelcard from Heathrow (return travel plus a whole day unlimited underground and bus travel) is just £4.00. Travel from Gatwick and you pay £17.80 for a second class rail return with no underground or bus travel included!

Add your £4.00 to your £17.80 and you have £21.80/ A 445% more expensive journey into Central London from Gatwick. Don't you just wish you were at Happy Heathrow now?

Heathrow is about to benefit from a cheap high speed connection (15 - 20 minutes) into central London. The Highlands now lose that benefit too.

Small businesses that export perishable items (food etc.) may well suffer serious problems and loss of turnover as the extra journey times impact on their markets.

Heathrow is one of the world's largest and busiest international airports. Most prominent politicians and businessmen here agree that the thrice daily Inverness - Heathrow flight run first by Dan Air and then by British Airways has massively contributed to the area's economic growth. All of this is now put at grave risk.

And, what's more, unless you have a silver or gold executive club card ("blue just won't do") you can't even get a drink after you've gone through security at Gatwick. This policy of snobbish old fashioned apartheid is not practiced at Happy Heathrow, where ordinary punters are not treated as second class citizens (it's one of the reasons we've named "Ghastly Gatwick". There are ample lounges and facilities at Heathrow for everyone. Sadly they are no longer available to the Highlands and Islands because of British Airways and its outrageous behaviour.

If you are travelling here (or planning to travel) from overseas then watch out for the difficulties...you may find yourself landed with extra expense and a whole host of extra problems.

If you are outraged at the way the Highlands has been treated then please sign our online Letter of Protest.



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