The presidents of Policy and Resources, Harbours and Airport and Economic Development made the decision after flybe offered to sell three peak-time slots for £18 million.
Senator Frank Walker said today that a new link with Heathrow would be expensive, adding that he did not believe Islanders would pay a premium to fly to Heathrow.
‘Heathrow is a high-cost airport and what we are trying to do is reduce the cost of travelling to and from Jersey.’He added that a new service would also damage the Gatwick route, which he said had better transport links with central London anyway.Senator Walker said that British European had also put a time limit on the offer which did not give them enough time to look into the complexities of making the deal possible.
He explained that the Island would have to find an airline to buy the slots on its behalf and that airline would then have to buy other slots to trade with the ones being offered by flybe.General manager of flybe in the Channel Islands Ian Taylor said that it ‘was not part of the airline’s business plan’ to operate such a service out of Heathrow and it was therefore offering the slots to Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
Guernsey are also understood to have turned down the deal.
