Loganair, the UK’s largest regional airline, is expanding its regional connections with London by acquiring more slots at Heathrow airport.

It has now renewed its calls to the UK Government to reform competition remedies to make the slots permanently available for greater connectivity around the UK.  

The airline has secured access to 30 additional pairs of slots each week at Heathrow under a lease arrangement with British Airways, which takes effect in May 2023.

Details of the specific routes to be served will be announced shortly once all formalities have been completed.  Details of the slot agreement were confirmed publicly today by Airport Coordination, the designated coordinator for UK airports.

The slot arrangement between the airlines comes as Loganair has once again asked the UK Government to initiate action with the European Commission to repatriate control of competition remedies dating back to 2012 under which these Heathrow slots were previously made available to other airlines – predominantly to fly domestic routes.

Jonathan Hinkles, Loganair’s chief executive, said: “Having taken these important first steps ourselves to provide new connectivity to and from the UK regions under this arrangement, it’s now essential for the UK Government to initiate the process needed to reform competition remedies to provide access to Heathrow for the UK regions.”

Loganair’s campaign around the reform of Heathrow competition remedy slots began last month, and quickly gathered support from figures including John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow Airport; Willie Walsh, the director general of IATA; and Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce. 

Changes to Heathrow’s tariffs for regional aircraft operating on UK domestic routes took effect from 1 January. The new tariffs are critical to the viability of Loganair’s plans to provide regional connectivity at Heathrow.