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Heathrow: The world's least favourite airport

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article2788626.ece

Heathrow: The world's least favourite airport

By Cahal Milmo and Martin Hickman
Published: 21 July 2007

As millions of holidaymakers seek to escape Britain's miserable summer
by flying abroad this weekend, a perfect storm of delays,
under-investment and environmental protest is brewing over Heathrow
airport.

Today, the world's busiest international airport will open its doors
to the first of 10 million passengers who will pour through its
terminals in the coming crucial eight-week period, amid warnings of
renewed travel chaos and reeling from the departure of its chief
executive. Tony Douglas, who left his post a month after admitting
Heathrow was "bursting at the seams" , leaves behind an airport that
is the subject of growing criticism from airlines and passengers over
delays caused by security checks and the slow modernisation of its
creaking infrastructure by its owners, British Airports Authority
(BAA) .

One senior airline executive told The Independent: "The blunt truth is
some of the facilities at Heathrow are now world-beatingly bad.
Terminal 2 is a shambles and money is not being spent fast enough. The
airport is in danger of sending out a message it is not fit for
purpose. And it is the passengers, the airlines and the UK economy
paying the price."

The problems for BAA will be intensified when a protest camp is set up
next to Heathrow aimed at highlighting the environmental impact of
aviation and the threat to hundreds of homes from a proposed third
runway. Organisers have vowed direct action next month to maximise the
impact of their demonstration but deny it will affect passengers.

BAA described any plans to disrupt the airport as "extremely
irresponsible".

But with Heathrow receiving 68 million passengers a year, half as many
again as its intended capacity of 45 million, it is far more likely
that delays will come from within the airport itself as it battles to
maintain morale.

The Independent has been told that Mr Douglas, who also said the
airport was "at times ... held together by sticking plaster" is one of
four senior executives to have left BAA's Heathrow team in the past
year, along with a significant number of middle-ranking managers.

Up to 220,000 people a day will pass through the airport in the next
two months, putting massive pressure on its ability to process baggage
and security-screen passengers.

British Airways said yesterday that it had cleared a backlog of 20,000
bags caused by recent bad weather and security alerts. Meanwhile, the
weather created more chaos yesterday as the airport said it had
cancelled 141 flights because of the torrential rain that swept across
the UK.

The airline, Heathrow's biggest operator, admitted it was vulnerable
to further difficulties because hand luggage restrictions mean it is
carrying 15 per cent more baggage in the holds of its aircraft.
Despite the Government's intention to increase the baggage allowance
to two bags, it could still be months before the measure is
introduced.

Stringent security checks imposed last summer after the alleged bomb
plot using liquid explosives brought Heathrow to a grinding halt.
Despite recruiting 500 extra security staff, the airport is not
meeting its target to process all passengers in security lanes within
five minutes. BAA said 97 per cent of passengers during its last
holiday peak in Easter were processed within 10 minutes but Mr Douglas
said he could not guarantee another " extraordinary event" would not
cause chaos.

Passenger groups said the lack of any spare capacity at the airport
meant it was disproportionately vulnerable to such incidents.

A spokesman for the Air Transport Users Council said: "It is tough
every summer at Heathrow and it just gets harder with the security
problems. I think all passengers can really do this year is hope
nothing happens outside the airport and everything runs smoothly
inside. There is no leeway when things go wrong."

BAA said yesterday that it expected many of Heathrow's problems to be
eased with the opening next March of the £4.2bn Terminal 5, which will
handle all BA flights and relieve congestion at the four other
terminals. BAA, which was bought for £16bn by the Spanish group
Ferrovial, has earmarked a further £6bn for revamping those buildings,
including the demolition or refurbishment of Terminals 1 and 2 to
create a new hub with a capacity of 30 million. But the new facilities
will not be finished before 2016.

BAA is pressing its regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, to allow
it to maintain the fees it charges airlines to use Heathrow. It has
warned that the airport's capacity problems it fills 98.5 per cent
of its flight slots means it risks losing its dominance to
competitors such as Paris Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol in Amsterdam,
which run at about 70 per cent capacity.

Airlines argue that BAA, which is also facing an inquiry into whether
its monopoly of London's three airports should be broken, has already
made enough money to fund the required investment. BAA made profits of
£620m last year.

A spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said: "We have some sympathy for the
owners but, compared to other airports, there is chronic
under-investment despite BAA making substantial profits year after
year. They have not kept up with the development of other airports."

Heathrow in figures

£620m BAA profits last year

68 million Passengers received per year

45 million Intended capacity

500,000 passengers this weekend

10 million Passengers estimated for the next 10 weeks

500 Extra security staff