Battle of the Runways: Gatwick and Heathrow’s war of words
The gloves have come off in London’s battle for an extra runway. When Heathrow’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye threw an insult at Gatwick in a newspaper interview, naturally Gatwick’s chief Stewart Wingate was ready to throw one back, likening Holland-Kaye to the man behind of the UK’s most famous business gaffes.
“In an interview from the Gerald Ratner playbook, the chief executive of Heathrow today dismissed Gatwick as ‘merely useful for holidays in the sun’,” he responded.
“It is one thing to patronise your competition. It is another to patronise the majority of your own passengers. We would respectfully remind Mr Holland-Kaye that 70 per cent of travellers use Heathrow for leisure and one in five passengers fly from Gatwick for business.”
Ding ding – round two?