easyJet (London Luton) has confirmed it would be interested in launching operations out of London Heathrow and would not need to compromise its strict 25-minute turnaround procedures at the main British gateway, although its entrance to Heathrow is unlikely before the third runway is built, Air Transport World has reported.

"The airline has been working closely with Heathrow for a number of years and has been able to confirm that low-cost operations would be viable at Heathrow. This would include easyJet’s requirements for its ‘walk in, walk out’ boarding process and 25-minute aircraft turnaround time," Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer Robert Carey has said at the Heathrow Connectivity Conference.

Carey has added that flying out of Heathrow would fit its strategy of connecting the primary airports. It is already the leading LCC by capacity at each of Paris CDG, Milan Malpensa, and Amsterdam Schiphol, the ch-aviation capacity module shows.

According to Carey's presentation, easyJet is mulling a total of 18 domestic destinations in the United Kingdom (including Jersey, Guernsey, and Isle of Man), as well as 61 international destinations, nearly all of them in Mediterranean countries.

Once it enters Heathrow, easyJet would most likely expand its Worldwide by easyJet platform, which allows booking connecting flights on a single itinerary with multiple partner airlines. Currently, easyJet cooperates through this platform with Norwegian and WestJet offering connections with transatlantic services out of London Gatwick.

However, the expansion is only likely once Heathrow builds its long-planned third runway, as the current infrastructure is running at a nearly full capacity.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Heathrow currently sees very limited LCC traffic. The largest low-cost airline at the airport is Eurowings with a 1.64% market share by capacity. Out of Europe's largest LCCs, only Vueling Airlines serves Heathrow with 11 weekly flights, while Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air or Norwegian do not fly to London's main gateway.

During the same conference, UK Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg has suggested that up to 15% of slots created by Heathrow's expansion should be earmarked for domestic flights.