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Heathrow threat
Page 13
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• Operators transporting freight to and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports are likely to see their trade cut drastically from next March, when freight flights will be banned for up to 10 hours a day.
The ban has been introduced by Transport Secretary John Moore to give higher priority to passenger transport movements.
Steven Bowles, from air freight specialists Roy Bowles Transport, says there will be a drastic effect on freight movements through Heathrow and Gatwick. "This is not going to affect scheduled flights very much," he says, "but it will affect charters. 1 can see lots of airlines taking their freight to Amsterdam and Brussels in future instead."
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority says that around 20% of freight flights from Heathrow and 10% of flights from Gatwick will be affected by the ban.
Gerry Hewson, chairman of the Heathrow flight scheduling committee is quoted as saying, "The writing is on the wall for freighters at Heathrow. At the present rate of growth it is not unreasonable to expect that there would be a complete ban on freighters at Heathrow within 10 years — and a ban on one or more days within five years."
Air-freight hauliers do not appear to have been briefed about the changes. Steven Bowles says, "There was no consultation with us."
He expects that Roy Bowles Transport will not be too severely affected by the ban. "There are about 20 tonnes of freight on each passenger flight," he says, "so we should be all right, but it is the specialist full freight companies who will suffer."
0 Last year more than 518,000 tonnes of freight passed through Heathrow Airport, and more than 150,000 tonnes passed through Gatwick. The total value of international freight movements through Heathrow last year stood at £21,256 million. More than E1,895 million of international freight passed through Gatwick.