Developing routes at the most slot constrained airport in the world: London Heathrow

At the Routes Asia conference, we caught up representatives from the most the most slot constrained airport in the world: Alyson Playford, Head of Aviation Business Development and Ben Hoskins, Senior Manager – Airline Network & Business Development at London Heathrow Airport.

In this exclusive interview, Alyson and Ben discuss the recovery of Heathrow post-pandemic, which has seen a big increase in leisure traffic as a result of pent-up demand for travel and an increase in leisure routes being flown by their carriers, which has leaned more towards long-haul leisure routes such as the Caribbean. 20% of the world’s SAF supply last year went through Heathrow and the airport is actively incentivising the use of SAF and it has been very successful.

They are looking to improve on this statistic in 2023. Alyson and Ben went on to say that a lot of carriers want to know how they can get slots at Heathrow because they are “technically full”, but that they are working on various strategies to ensure that there is growth at the airport. Secondary slot trading is allowed in the UK, so Heathrow actively engages with its carriers who are allowed to lease and sell their slots so that they do not lose them.

Watch this exclusive interview now to find out more about Alyson and Ben’s opportunities, challenges and business outlook for Europe’s busiest airport!