I have to say I have absolutely no sympathy with either BAA or ANY of the airlines. We are given to understand that Lhr works at about 98% capacity and carries what, maybe 20m more pax than it was designed for. So what happens, Lhr keep letting more flights in and airlines want to get more flights in. Look at the number of services that have been transferred from Lgw. All in the pursuit of profit. If it all works perfectly, then not too many serious problems, but there are still problems. When the smallest thing goes wrong, it all goes very badly wrong. Why, because working at almost 100% capacity allows for no room to try and make anything work if something goes wrong, it all falls apart and very fast. And so the extra profit they claim to make by flying from Lhr over say Lgw has just disappeared over the past few and next few days. The first thing that Lhr should be ordered to do is reduce to say 90% capacity to allow a little bit of wriggle room. If Lhr and the airlines had their way, they would have Lhr operating at 120% of capacity or any other figure. Nothing can work at 98% all the time and work well. We see the effects of this all the time, snow, fog etc. I often wonder why H & S has nothing to say about the overcrowding at Lhr. Would they allow it elsewhere, apart from Lhr, trains and underground.
I have great pity for all the poor people stuck there, many will have xmas and other plans ruined.
TB