There I was, about to book a ticket to a far away country. LHR would usually be very far down my list of transit airports, now it's moved to the bottom. BA are, surprisingly, a bit cheaper than the alternatives. However, I'll persuade the company to send me via somewhere else to save on time and stress.
I'm actually surprised LHR could get any worse. It used to be that the terminals were utter crap, and I suspect they still are, the holding patters long and tedious, the baggage recovery a mess and transit bags sent in any other direction than the one intended. Now it seems Ground Movements is also in shables, "perfecting" a picture of utter chaos.
LHR - To Be Avoided If At All Possible.
Sorry for the guys and gals who have to work in this misery. Even more sorry for the guys and gals who might loose their jobs as (transit) passengers turn away from LHR and seek other alternatives. AMS is not a bad place to transit. Hell, even CDG and FRA are better, and that speak volumes of the level LHR has reached.
So what is the solution? Reduce traffic at LHR, moving it to one or more of the other London airports? Yes, that will ease the congestion at LHR (might jeopardize it somewhere else), but on the other hand transiting passengers don't really fancy changing not only aircraft, but also airports. So, won't work. Only real solution, if LHR wishes to preserve it's status as Europes premier transit airport, is to build a couple of runways double quick, build T5 (and probably also a T6), increase the apron and TWY areas to provide controllers with more options to manouver aircraft, increase the manpower required to turn-around aircraft in record time (someone mentioned Silverstone) and, equally important, extend the existing terminals so that passengers can actually find a place to SIT during the wait. Unrealistic, perhaps.
So build a new airport than can actually HANDLE the amount of traffic experienced, present and future, and dynamite LHR off the surface of the earth. That too is probably equally unrealistic. Too many NIMBY's in the world these days .....