Hacker News Reader

Comment by andrewflnr | Hacker News Reader

Wow. I kinda have to respect their position in OP but I don't understand this at all. How can the originating airport matter that much?

View on HN

It’s about connecting flights. More flights go to Heathrow from more places. Changing airport is anathema to most sane people so not being able to easily connect to there means it’s less likely people will come. This impacts business in many ways. Several countries and places have had a similar reaction for example the “save our slots” campaign of the Irish mid west community for flights from Shannon to Heathrow.

This. Prestige is part of it, but considering that ACC has only a couple of North American routes and a handful of European routes, a flight to Heathrow is a huge win: it brings one-stop connectivity to most of the world. By contrast, a flight to Gatwick means a deeply unappealing cross-London transfer to make those connections.

On the other hand, Gatwick isn't exactly a back water. I've flown to Toronto and the Seychelles via Gatwick before. We live between the two so it often comes down to flight times rather than airport.

Indeed, it has many routes, but it tends to skew towards leisure destinations. Also, Heathrow has the vast majority of the premium demand, so, for example, airlines that have aircraft with a First[0] cabin will schedule those aircraft to Heathrow and not Gatwick. It might seem strange to be discussing premium demand in the context of connections from Accra, but the toy-spitting that happened when BA tried to move the flights to Gatwick was coming from high-ranking politicians — who are certainly not flying in economy.

[0] International First, not what is called First in the US.

> Changing airport is anathema to most sane people

It's not just about time or inconvenience. Nationals of Ghana can transit the UK airside (at the same airport) without needing a UK visa in most cases, but changing airports means they are more likely to need a UK visa (there are fewer exemptions).

Americans don't realize that a lot of other airports around the world let you connect to other international flights without having to pass through immigration and customs. The USA is really backwards in that respect.

...Which is amusingly because the US is less strict at immigration/customs than most other countries. Since it lacks any exit controls, there's no need to segregate the international departures section of the airport, which has the side effect of meaning you have to enter the US to get to your connecting flight.

Gatwick is considered less prestigious than Heathrow in certain circles.

Getting to Heathrow from London is faster, easier and cheaper.

Depends what part of London you’re in. For me Gatwick is the faster, cheaper, easier airport. It’s also the airport with the fastest security and passport control I’ve ever been through.

I also challenge the idea that Heathrow is ever cheaper to get to than Gatwick. The Thames Link service to Gatwick is far cheaper than the Heathrow express, much faster and more pleasant than the Piccadilly line, only the Lizzie line makes Heathrow as cheap and easy to get to by train as Gatwick.

I can definitely say that Gatwick is the 100% better airport for international transfers. From that angle, the only thing Heathrow has going for it is that there are many more options. From every other aspect, Gatwick is way better and Heathrow is horrific.

Doesn’t it depend where in London? For example I’d rather ride the Gatwick Express from Victoria for 30 minutes than sit on the tube from Kings Cross to Heathrow for an hour. And outside of London, from Cambridge for example, there is non-stop train service available to Gatwick but not to Heathrow.

It’s too bad Norwegian shuttered their long haul service between Gatwick and NYC/BOS. It was affordable, comfortable and convenient, so of course it went bankrupt. Now the best options are out of Heathrow (my favorite is now British Air, as long as AA isn’t operating the flight…).

But starting in November you can reach Heathrow from Central London in 30 minutes.

Check out Norse, basically the same flights as Norwegian had.

This is great, exact same model and everything. I hope they come back to my city (Austin), it was insane what they did for price competition in the area (generally sliced the cost to get to Europe in half) and generally had better quality of service. My favorite part was being able to order food and beverages a-la-carte from the IFE console. It's so much more efficient for both the customers and the staff to do it that way.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com