Government urged to acquire GB Airways' Heathrow slots

The Government is being urged to help retain the Shannon-Heathrow service by bidding for four pairs of London Heathrow slots that have today been put up for sale by a London Gatwick-based airline.

GB Airways is to sell the slots, which were excluded from EasyJet's £103.5m (€147.5m) acquisition of the carrier this week. The Airline has declared its intention to sell the slots before January 31 2008. Aer Lingus, meanwhile, is due to cease operating flights between Shannon and Heathrow from January 14 2008.