alt Hacker NewsYes but Heathrow has around twice as many departures per day (edit after your edit:) than Gatwick.
This is on BBC news. Heathrow is twice as busy as any other airport in the UK. It's the easiest major airport to reach from London (other than LCY which is not that "major"). I literally know people who are leaving from Heathrow this week and are affected by this. C'mon, it's newsworthy.
Yeah and 50% more than Rome, but overall less than all airports already doing it in Europe. This news made front page out of two things:
1) English people do not know anything about continental Europe
2) Americans do not know anything about Europe