I think there were interesting moments about the responsiveness and customer focus of BAA management revealed at the Transport Committee "Future of BAA" hearings. Particularly relevant were the thoughts that the top of BAA seemed unaware of the problems of airline and terminal staff getting through security to work airside:
http://www.publications.parliament.u...19/7112801.htm
Q212 Clive Efford: How do you respond to the charge that you have not listened to the industry in terms of the facilities you provide at airports and that where you have agreed changes or improvements at airports with the airlines those changes have not been implemented?
Mr Nelson: I think the opening of Terminal 5 on 27 March on time will represent the capability of this business both in its ambition to deliver construction of the highest world-class quality, and I also recognise that we have a difficult job meeting, for example in Heathrow, the competing demands for infrastructure of 94 airlines, but I am pleased to say that going forward for the next five years we have largely come to an agreement on a transformation plan for Heathrow which amounts to some 3.6 billion across those airlines. So my sense is that actually we are meeting the demands as put to us by airlines.
Q239 Mr Wilshire: I think I have made my point. Yes, I do have some questions, but I think it is important to get the record straight. Could I just start with the situation of Terminal 5 coming on-line. Is there not a tendency for all the shortcomings, irrespective of who is responsible for them, to say, "It will all be alright on the night when Terminal 5 opens"? Is there not a danger of raising expectations that that might be a solution for more things than it will be?
Mr Nelson: I think the right way to consider Terminal 5 is step one. We are as clear as anybody that Heathrow needs to be transformed. Terminal 5 at a stroke will reduce the numbers of passengers going through Terminal 1 by about 50%, the numbers of passengers going through Terminal 4 by about 75%, and that will level out to 50, and the numbers of passengers going from Terminal 2 by about 15%. That will provide from April very considerable relief to passengers in physical terms. It needs also to be understood that Terminal 3 will actually get busier; it will go up in passenger terms by about 10%, which I think plays to the point that it is not just Terminal 5, it is the development of the whole campus in physical terms, and that is what our plans are in front of the Regulator. It is the development of the whole campus that needs to be delivered.
Q240 Mr Wilshire: Rather a lot of people are aware of the problems at Heathrow. Which of those problems do you consider are your responsibility and which are the problems you consider are the responsibilities of somebody else?
Mr Nelson: Before I go into this, it is important to say that I see no upside from the blame game and I personally have steered well clear of the media. However, it does need to be articulated that BAA controls, let us call it two of the six major factors in customer satisfaction. We control central security and we control the retail and the catering. We do not control check-in. We provide the desk, but we do not control the manning of the check-in.
Q241 Chairman: However, Mr Nelson, most of the evidence we have got has been about exactly those bits which you control.
Mr Nelson: With respect, Chairman, there is enough evidence also to suggest, both anecdotally and on websites, that check-in queues have been considerable as well.
Q242 Chairman: So we are not in the blame game, we are just saying the others are as bad as us?
Mr Nelson: I accept that point, but immigration is Home Office and baggage reclaim—the time it takes for the bag to be transported from the plan onto the reclaim belt is under the control of the airlines handling agents. We are responsible for the kit. Finally, punctuality, which with an airport as full as Heathrow can be anything from weather-related to schedule-related issues.
Q250 Mrs Ellman: American Airlines gave us evidence this afternoon about problems experienced by their staff getting through controls at the airports. Is that a problem you are already aware of?
Mr Nelson: I am aware that on occasion we do have queues going through the staff checkpoint. It is not just airlines, it will be our own staff as well and any other people working air-side. Again, that is not a problem we want to take lightly and we must make sure that is improved.
Q252 Chairman: Mr Nelson, we were told that crew have been held up as long as an hour. If you hold up an aircraft crew, the aircraft cannot take off on time, it looses its slots and it is in considerable difficulty. Is that true, and are you aware of it? If you are aware of it, how often does it happen?
Mr Nelson: I will check the statistics and get back to you.
Q253 Chairman: Mr Nelson, surely in the talks you have had with the airlines they cannot have been silent on this matter. Are you aware of any of the crews having difficulty getting through security and being delayed with an effect upon their flight time?
Mr Nelson: Chairman, I was certainly aware of the intensity of the problem in and around 10 August and beyond. I have not been made aware of this recently and the issues we tend to talk about in regular strategic dialogue with airlines is around control posts and less around the staff security.