On Friday staff in the specialist team that undertakes all sales, marketing and PR activities were told that the majority of their roles would be made redundant because Southern, the operator of the Gatwick Express service was withdrawing its support.

airrail NEWS looks back at the Airport Express Alliance between the Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted services, how it came to be disbanded and what this might mean for their revenues from overseas markets.

Back in 1999 amongst the relative security of ‘darlings of the City of London’ BAA and the National Express Group who owned the 15 year franchise of Gatwick Express both parties could see the strategic benefits of a sales and marketing alliance. Amid a fanfare of activity the alliance was born and included Stansted Express within a year. This was seen as an opportunity to achieve economies of scale in sales and marketing activity particularly in saving the costs of reaching people overseas through airlines and overseas agents and create a centre of excellence for this unique market in rail custom.

Whilst this threesome lived in harmony for five years the cracks started to appear when ‘one’ Railway took over the East Anglia franchise and decided it was best placed to handle Stansted Express itself. Insiders say that what followed was a significant drop in market share as promotional activity missed the airport market and was lost amongst their core domestic passenger market costing them millions in lost revenue per annum. Others more cruelly suggested that the Stansted Express brand was not worthy of being part of the alliance with old trains that were little more than commuter carriages.

So why has the ten year marriage between Heathrow and Gatwick Express ended? The UK Department for Transport terminated the Gatwick Express franchise in 2008, instructing Southern to operate the service under the Gatwick Express brand. Now Southern, owned by Govia, has been re-appointed to run the franchise for just five years. Whilst this does not engender long term thinking sources close to the split suggest that this is a BAA induced divorce whose time horizon is somewhat shorter: hardly surprising considering that a sale of Gatwick has been forced upon them.

“Both Heathrow Express and Gatwick Express are very strong brands and want to refocus priorities on their core business so they can continue to deliver excellent customer service. We would like to reassure all clients and customers that the transition will be as smooth as possible,” commented the decision Paul Brindley, Commercial Director for Airport Express Alliance.

For the moment it seems that short sighted goal setting has led to this centre of excellence to be disbanded. Time will tell if the costs of separation will be as high for Gatwick and Heathrow Expresses as they were for Stansted Express.

Sign in with a social network: