| This is where charm, chutzpah
and charisma come into play. Particularly
at airports around London, take-off and landing
slots are at a premium. Smaller carriers constantly
complain of being squeezed out.
Slots at BAA's seven British airports are
handled by a special agency, Airport Co-ordination
Ltd. A helpful chap manning the phones suggests
a spot of networking. He reckons the best
place to start will be Vancouver in September,
for the annual scheduling conference of
the International Air Transport Association:
"You can make informal contact with
people there, then submit a request to us
by telex."
A spokesman for Britain's low-cost mecca,
Stansted Airport, is not encouraging, advising
that available slots are largely in the
quiet middle of the day - useless for that
businessman with a 9am meeting in Frankfurt.
But Luton is more encouraging. Passenger
services director Natalie Raper says: "We've
got slots for you. Even if you're going
to destinations already served by the airport,
we'd welcome the fresh competition. We'd
nurture your airline and do everything we
possibly could to help you."
Theoretically, flying to other EU countries
doesn't require any government approval.
It's simply a question of negotiating with
foreign airports. By picking particularly
outlandish destinations, Ryanair and Buzz
have even persuaded some overseas airports
to pay them for their custom. Ambitions
to break into Paris Charles de Gaulle are
best forgotten for the time being, although
a helpful airline source suggests that Munich
is looking empty.
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