UK fliers are set to save even more when flying from Heathrow as the airport announced a 50% increase in the discount for domestic flights.
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From January 1, 2018, passengers flying to any UK destination from Heathrow will have a £15 discount on the airport charges they pay – the biggest discount in the airport’s history and resulting in savings of nearly £40 million annually and over £750 million over the next 20 years.
Heathrow has been a long-time and ardent campaigner for boosting domestic flights at the UK’s hub and last year committed to keeping a discounted domestic passenger charge for at least the next twenty years as long as it is in the public interest.
The further reduction in the domestic passenger charge announced today will save passengers even more money while making domestic routes more commercially viable for airlines – encouraging them to add more domestic services.
Heathrow is the UK’s global gateway and largest port – ensuring communities across Britain have convenient, reliable access to the hub is critical for connecting exporters with customers around the world and attracting inward tourism and investment.
The domestic discount is one plank in a package of measures Heathrow is implementing to support more flights to UK destinations – ultimately increasing the airport’s domestic connections from 8 today to at least 14 when the airport expands in 2025.
Other measures include creating a £10m fund to provide start-up capital for 5 new domestic routes, urging the government to use new powers after leaving the EU to ring-fence slots at the airport solely for domestic flights and campaigning for the abolition of air passenger duty on domestic flights to save UK passengers up to £225m annually. ■
A low pressure wave forming along a cold front will track across the New England coast this morning, bringing a period of rain, heavy at times for much of New England, especially for Maine today.