Hacker News Reader

Comment by slickrick216 | Hacker News Reader

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.

View on HN

> 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.

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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com