Heathrow Shames London

Posted on August 4, 2007
Filed Under Interesting Stuff |

There’s a serious operational breakdown at Heathrow with security lines longer than many flights out of that key airport.

British Airways and Ryanair confirmed that as a result of the queues at check-in and security, some passengers on short-haul flights to European destinations were spending more time in airport terminals than in the air.

While there is no shortage of finger pointing going on, the fact remains that the airport operator is failing and nobody is holding them accountable. I noticed this situation during my last trip to Europe and at the time I thought to myself that the next time I flew I would definitely be connecting through Frankfurt to wheverever I was going. Basically, I’ll do whatever I can to avoid Heathrow and if I am flying into the UK I will fly into Gatwick.

Heathrow is old and in desperate need of major renovations to not only improve the experience while in the terminal but speed things up through security. Major U.S. airports like Dulles and JFK are no picnic but they certainly move passengers through the checkin and security process quickly (let’s not bring up Logan… that airport should call in the bulldozers and a do-over). More stringent airport security processes doesn’t mean that airports grind to a halt.

I don’t know how London and the British government can let Heathrow degrade any further, and from the comments of the airlines themselves it sounds like it’s not only passengers who are revolting.

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