Flybe pulls Gatwick to Aberdeen route, adding spark to the London-Scotland connectivity debate

The relationship between England and Scotland has always been contentious with centuries-long battles for power between the King/Queen of England and heirs to the Scottish throne. While these kind of brutal disputes have ended, the air connectivity debate between London and Scotland remains high on the agenda. Even the European Commission got involved when it requested that British Airways surrender seven daily slot pairs at London Heathrow for explicit use on services to Aberdeen and/or Edinburgh Airport as part of the remedy package to clear the acquisition of bmi by British Airways (BA) parent International Airlines Group (IAG) in Mar-2012. On these routes, IAG was judged to have too large a hold on the market, either by number or proportionally.

London-Edinburgh is the largest UK domestic route by passengers and London-Aberdeen the fourth largest, and both routes are in danger of falling in a duopoly situation following the recent announcement by Flybe that it is withdrawing its London Gatwick-Aberdeen service as of 28-Oct-2012. This will leave easyJet and BA the only operators on the London-Aberdeen market.