Predicted here on PPrune some while back...
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle2120834.ece
BAA asks for lenience as chaos looms at Heathrow
Heathrow is at risk of further significant disruption to airline and passenger services following the opening of Terminal 5 in March next year believes BAA, the company that owns London’s airports.
BAA’s concern prompted the airport operator to ask its regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, to consider suspending a penalty regime relating to service quality that requires BAA to pay rebates to airlines if the airport fails to meet certain service quality standards. A BAA spokesman said that it would be an exceptional suspension, analagous to “what happened after a terrorist attack”.
Signals that widespread airport disruption could coincide with the transfer of British Airways’ services from Terminals 1 and 4 to their new home from March 27 will be a blow to travel-lers who had hoped for a swift reduction in delays and overcrowding after the opening of the new terminal.
Worsening delays and overcrowding have plagued Heathrow, with the pressure on space exacerbated by the introduction of stringent new security measures last year. The Heathrow operator must meet 27 service quality measures ranging from cleanliness and speed of passenger security checks to the provision of piers to airlines.
Tony Douglas, who last week quit his job as chief executive of Heathrow, has described the airport as “at times held together by sticking plaster”.
BAA’s request for suspension of the penalty regime emerges in documents relating to the five-year review by the CAA of the pricing regime for the London airports.
In a document reviewing the airport pricing regime, published by the CAA in December, the regulator disclosed that BAA had asked for a blanket suspension of standards and rebates scheme at Heathrow during periods of change. “BAA believed that the service quality scheme should be temporarily suspended, at Heathrow, during those stages . . . when airport operations would be in a significant state of flux while airlines relocate to alternative terminals following the opening of T5.”
The airlines oppose a blanket suspension of the scheme, the CAA report states, suggesting that there should be a temporary suspension of only parts of the scheme in specific areas for brief periods.
BAA said that it believed it would be “harsh” to penalise the company during the move of airlines to different terminals.
“It is going to be a huge move – British Airways is 40 per cent of our business. A move of 90 airlines is a massive operation. We would hope that nothing goes wrong,” it said.
Heathrow is groaning under the strain of 68 million passengers a year, about 50 per cent more than its capacity of 45 million. The security crisis that erupted last year with the introduction of new measures limiting hand luggage and more intense scrutiny of passengers has left the airport struggling to cope and vulnerable to every new challenge, from weather to terrorist threats.
The opening of Terminal 5, which will handle all of BA’s flights, was intended to ease congestion but there are still concerns about the availability of piers and jetties for aircraft.