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Air New Zealand gets £20m for its London Heathrow landing and take-off slots

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Air New Zealand is ending services from the UK in October when it closes its Heathrow – Los Angeles – Auckland route.  Our article on the Air New Zealand UK closure is here.

Forbes is claiming that Air New Zealand received £20m (NZ$42m) for its daily take-off and landing slot.

Air New Zealand gets £20m for its London Heathrow slots

This may seem a lot, but it is well below the record $75m paid to Kenya Airways by Oman Air a couple of years ago.  The Air New Zealand price was hampered by the fact that the slots are not in the peak early morning period.

It is not clear which airline has bought the slots.

This trade acts as a stark reminder of why airlines will fly empty planes from Heathrow, for months if necessary, during coronavirus to ensure that their slots are retained.

The new ‘season’ starts in late March and a slot must be used on 80% of days during the following seven months (Winter starts in late October) if they are not to be forfeited.  The only way to circumvent this is by Government order.

Comments (75)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ashan Ramakrishnan says:

    OT Amex SPG – they just called to say they will be upholding my complaint about the points applied. Be interesting to see how many goodwill points they provide.

  • Russ 😷 says:

    Wife just received this from BA:

    The promotion codes ECWELCOME3 and ECWELCOME4 are only available to [wife’s name] and are not transferable. No cash or credit alternative is available. You must be logged into your Executive Club account at ba.com to participate in this offer. 2.) Codes cannot be used retrospectively. These Codes apply to new bookings only, made within 30 days of receipt of this email [today]. The Code may only be used once. 3.) ECWELCOME3 entitles you to £5 off the total price of any short haul flight only booking including taxes, fees and carrier charges in GBP. A minimum spend of £50 must be met for this promotion code to work 4.) ECWELCOME4 entitles you to £50 off the total price of any long haul flight only booking including taxes, fees and carrier charges in GBP. A minimum spend of £300 must be met for this promotion code to work.

  • Aston100 says:

    Also, is £257pp considered quite expensive for a Club Europe return LHR/CDG?.
    I’m thinking this would enable me to hit silver. Can also reduce the cost by £30 with 3000 avios and I’d get 1500 avios for the booking.
    Sounds expensive to me for such a short flight, but wondering what the experts think.

    • Rob says:

      Gatwick to Amsterdam would be cheaper, or Heathrow to Leeds or somewhere.

      Don’t be fooled into thinking the shortest routes are the cheapest ones. Looks at the BA Low Fare Finder.

  • Benilyn says:

    OT: Kurve – where can I load up an ISA / trading account in cash without charge?

  • Scallder says:

    Had a survey just sent through by Curve – was asking about what would be missed most if I could no longer use Curve (and whether would go to a competitor). Perhaps they’re trying to get some funding in to keep themselves afloat?

    • Anna says:

      There’s something odd going on with Curve this week. I am definitely being allowed to go over the £700 limit, done £700 on IHG via Curve but it’s also letting me top up Revolut in addition. Will proceed with caution and keep paying off Creation as I go along!

    • Tom1 says:

      Did you also notice the one feature that was not listed in the “I will miss the most..” question is the one we all use.. being able to use a credit card where only a debit card is accepted?
      Ominous.

  • BA-Flyer says:

    Is the issue with Revolut transaction codes now fixed?

  • Oliv says:

    OT – £5 off a £25 order at Amazon by 29th March with the usual conditions with code MYDISCOUNT5

    • Shoestring says:

      tried it yesterday in my main a/c & didn’t work for me

      worth a try though, particularly if you can stack it with the M’s 20% off credit, ie you’re getting £10 off £25

      • TGLoyalty says:

        I can see the offer via a banner on my account and it says I’m eligible but still couldn’t use the code. Amazon gave me £5 as goodwill. Perhaps the code will start working at some point so I get it again.

        Fuel via GC worked fine at a couple of my local M’s so I’m happy might make a final trip tomorrow for a few more.

  • AJA says:

    O/T Qantas will close its Singapore first class lounge from Monday 20 April until at least September 2020 as well as halting its Sydney-Singapore-London Airbus A380 flights from the same date. The reason for the lounge closure is the A380 is the only aircraft in the Qantas fleet that has a first-class cabin and no A380s will be flying to or via Singapore.

    Instead, Qantas’ flagship QF1/QF2 service to London will be re-routed via Perth and become a non-stop Boeing 787-9 to London, running alongside the current QF9/QF10 service resulting in two daily Perth-London flights on the Dreamliner.

    Qantas is also replacing the A380 with a 787-9 from late March and then an A330 from 4 May on the daily Melbourne-Singapore service.

    The business class lounge at Changi will stay open.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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