The site of the UK’s, if not the world’s, premier airport grinding to a halt combined with images of stranded passengers left to their own devices in freezing cold terminals for days being broadcast all over the world has further dented the already tarnished image of Heathrow and the reputation of the country.
With the farce that was the opening of Terminal Five still fresh in people’s memories; now a few inches of the white stuff brought misery to thousands and thousands of travellers hoping to get away for Christmas. While airlines were faced with yet another financial disaster.
With Northern European airports remaining fully operational their bosses must have been so grateful just to have the right kind of snow fall on them!
Not so for the British Airport’s Authority as its flagship remained dead in the water while its hapless management seemed to be as frozen as the weather, inactivity was the order of the day. So thousands of travellers were given no information as to what their fate was.
The question on everyone’s lips, including the PM and Mayor of London was simply – WHY? Yet again BAA demonstrated its totally incapable of dealing with something likely to happen each and every year. There were even reports the company refused help from the Army to get Heathrow up and running again.
The media were universal in heralding it as another in a long line of PR disasters for BAA. With questions being asked as to how much longer airlines will use Heathrow, continuingly stumbling from one crisis to another, as a major hub when other countries are desperate for their business and where airports are run efficiently.
BAA’s critics, and there are many, talked about a company still stuck in the 1950s; chronic underinvestment, poor management and Heathrow being run more like a shopping mall which happens to have parking spaces for aircraft - rather than the world’s number one airline hub!
But what can be done? Very little as BAA is in private hands and can do as it pleases. Government and the media can apply pressure and airlines, to an extent, can vote with their feet. But the ultimate decision as to whether travellers using Heathrow can look forward to continued misery rests firmly round BAA’s board table.
Given past performance it does not look too hopeful.
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