Originally Posted by
wiggy
I’d agree other places seem on the whole to manage it differently.
One thing that overseas places manage to avoid is their national aviation infrastructure being seen as a Giant Ponzi Scheme by investors from overseas who don't know one end of an aircraft from the other, an approach which has spread across the UK airport infrastructure. Bad news is always when one of the Australian investors, or in particular Canadian public sector pension plan investors, manage to acquire significant or majority shareholdings.
Heathrow was a classic, where the Spanish investors grossly overpaid for it, and then all management attention was only on making some return on this amount by any means possible. Contractors on the airport, such as handling agents or other commercial operators, are then in turn screwed down for huge fee increases which they can only come up with by minimising their costs all down the line. Minimum equipment, minimum-wage personnel, and operators coming and going as they just can't make a penny out of it, all the funds being diverted out of the operation.