Early-morning Heathrow link ‘safe’

British airways say they have no plans to cut aberdeen service despite axeing similar routes

By Ryan Crighton

Published:

British Airways has insisted that its early-morning flight between Aberdeen and Heathrow is safe, despite similar services from Edinburgh and Glasgow being axed.

BA will no longer provide a “red-eye” flight between the Scottish and English capitals from March, prompting claims that the airline could be poised to quit Scotland.

It comes after the same service from Glasgow was cut, but BA insists it is committed to services in Scotland.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alastair Darling are both regular users of the 6.30am Edinburgh service, which was axed with the 9pm return.

Last night BA said there were no plans to cut any services from Aberdeen.

“All routes are constantly reviewed, but there are no plans to alter the services from Aberdeen at the moment,” said a spokesman.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh last month said it remained committed to Scotland, hours after announcing the closure of its Glasgow cabin crew operation with a potential 138 redundancies.

He pledged that BA would continue to operate from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London so long as businesses and the public continue to use them.

“Serving Scotland is the DNA of British Airways. It’s an absolutely crucial market for us and will always remain so,” Mr Walsh added.

A Unite union spokeswoman representing BA cabin crew claimed the airline had a “bit-by-bit” agenda to pull out of Scotland completely.

“They have gradually reduced Scottish flights, using everything from the credit crunch to fuel prices as an excuse,” she said.

“They say it is more cost-effective to use London staff because the cabin crew down there are cheaper because they are on newer pay scales. How can we compete?

“They’re taking away flights and that leaves us with less work. We really do feel this is BA pulling out of Scotland – they might as well call it London Airways.”

She added: “They did it in Manchester, they pulled the cabin crew two years ago, then the ground staff went. Manchester is now down to seven flights from 10.”

BA said there are still 5,000 seats between Scotland and London every day.