Airports under fire over 2,000 job cuts

[Ranger 1]

Just heard about this on the News
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle2351405.ece

[Flightman]

This is getting ridiculous. BAA has been restructuring since January 2005, morale is at an all time low, and most staff with any experience have already left.

[bom100bay]

Do BAA Want to kill uk air transport

As a frequent flyer who transits through Europe many times a year I wonder what BAA business strategy is, too me it would seam take the money and run as both Heathrow and Gatwick are under staffed and facilities are falling apart especially T2 and T3 at Heathrow.

From now on will be using AMS, Frankfurt and yes believe on not CDG . I’m just so tired of long lines for security and shabby surroundings.

[Rainboe]

What are you grumbling about- the shops are nice and expensive looking and glossy! True, it's not what you are at the airport for, and the 'fantastic savings' are largely illusory, but aren't they lit attractively?

As most people travelling are in time crisis mode after being subject to the dreadful security procedures, the shops could well be dispensed with, but presumably the concessions make a fortune for BAA.

We have to examine the whole question of....BAA....why? The original owners got it into the state it is in now. They desperately sold to someone.....anyone!......handing over the keys with deep joy. With the thought 'I can't run it, here are the keys, you try!'. Telling Ferrovial 'well, it's a good runner. Might be a lot of smoke when you start up, but it's OK!' Meanwhile Ferrovial have presumably discovered what a bad runner it is. And deep down, they now know what the seller knew....it cannot go on as it is- it is going to fall apart and be dismembered.

[jewitts]

"Do BAA Want to kill uk air transport"
Not just BAA but all invloved methinks. Just as an illustration I will be travelling to Canada soon from Switzerland. Travel agency has given me options direct from Zurich (= €3800), via CDG (= €3227) via FRA (= €4200) and via LHR (= €2400!!!) (all comparable business class including all extras) Just shows how BA has to reduce prices to attract customers to pass through Heathrow these days. I will choose the direct flight and am not even remotely tempted by BA.
Just for clarification, the prices quoted are from BSL (Euroairport) not Zurich. So all the routes except from Zurich direct are thru hubs, ZCH = Air Canada, CDG = Air France and FRA = Lufthansa.

[Hand Solo]

If you look at the fares from LHR to Canada via each of those airports you'll find the situation reversed! The discounts always apply when you have an intermediate stop with virtually every airline.

[green granite]

Interesting to note that one third of their staff are for security purposes, almost one third doing admin, HR, and marketing (why do they have marketing people?). That leaves one third of their employees who are actually productive, what a way to staff a company.

[BAAADM]

BAA on the 'Slippery' slope!?

I spent 29yrs working for BAA, before being made redundant last Sept. The whole restructure at the time was a total shame, with weird assessment centers!. My particular work group (Airport Duty Managers), were made redundant and over 100yrs of experience went with us..from just one of the seven Airports in the group

I still stay in contact with some staff who remained, and listen to the horror stories of poor customer service, growing queues and increasingly inept management. Many of the senior managers involved last year in the restructure have been promoted internally to 'group' positions, and one has left BAA to become a MD at a regional Airport, whilst on the ground the term 'crisis management' become more real by the day.

I was the ADM on nights that was served the DfT new screening requirements last August , I think that it has been easy for BAA management to 'blame' the Security requirements for many of their current problems, and whilst the have not helped, believe me the restructure was well underway by that time, and key experienced staff already being lost (with no active concerns from the unions!, and the standards already starting to fall away rapidly.

I believe the sooner BAA is broken up, the current management dismissed, the more customer focussed, friendly and most important of all perhaps, cost effective our major airports will become ... the only thing that concerns me ... is my BAA pension safe for the next 10yrs!!?

[west lakes]

Advertising Opportunity

This is as good as a spot for this as anywhere

Advert on local radio station this am

Maybe its because I'm not a londoner that I hate london so
Maybe its because I'm not a londoner that I hate london so
I get an angry feeling inside me as I sit on the M25
Maybe its because I'm not a londoner that I hate london so

(It does rhyme with the original "Maybe it's because I'm a londoner")

It then goes on to advertise the new Emirates service and connections from Newcastle as being ideal for avoiding LHR

[Woofrey]

Oh come on guys, surely this is a good thing ? Getting rid of 2,000 bureaucrats will surely make BAA run so much smoother and cheaper, and as they are regulated on a profits basis, the cost savings will be passed back to the airlines in the form of cheaper landing fees won't it ?

As far as the actual experience of going through the airport is concerned, that will soon be sorted out as well. Now that most of the useless, experienced managers and staff are leaving, the new management from the manufacturing and process industries, can overlay their "processes" on passengers to ensure they flow evenly through the system, from arrival at the terminal entrance through to the aircraft door.

You just have to follow the "process", ( just as we do when manufacturing widgets ) ; now if you airlines, handling agents, customs, immigration, police, traffic controllers and refuellers could all follow the process as well, it would work very nicely......

[old,not bold]

Who said it's the bureaucrats who will go?

BAA's problems started when the shopkeepers moved in to the senior Board positions in the 1980's.

Those of us in BAA at that time who tried to keep the focus on the fast, expeditious and efficient transfer of the airlines' customers from surface transport to aircraft, and vice versa, were ridiculed as fools who simply did not understand the airport business.

The new managers worked to increase the "dwell times", ie the length of time people had to wait in the departure lounge, sorry, retail mall. It was a business target to do so.

Incidentally, every "duty free" sign should land BAA in court. If you have an idle hour or three to waste in a BAA departure lounge, there's a lot of fun to be had asking the Duty Manager "which duty, exactly, is not being charged?", following up with "on which High Street, exactly, are these products being sold more expensively?".

Ever heard the assertion "retail revenue kees the user charges low"? It's always been rubbish. The real disbenefits and costs of having all that retail have never, ever, been properly understood by BAA (or many other airport operators), because they have never wanted to understand them properly.

Those disbenefits and costs are now becoming a little more obvious, as LHR descends rapidly into total, unmanageable chaos.

It's not too late. If 85% percent of the floorspace now devoted to retail at LHR were dedicated instead to facilities designed solely to speed up passenger movement and remove congestion, all LHR's problems would be solved at a stroke, and its operating costs would be reduced dramatically. The small net loss of revenue, if there is one at all, would be offset by the operational benefits.

But it would take a brave management to do that, and Ferrovial is nothing of the sort. Ferrovial is a financial operator looking for a quick buck.

The transfer of ownership and control of one of our greatest national assets to owners outside the UK is a disgrace. The present Prime Minister must take full responsibility for allowing it to happen.

[BAAADM]

Not Really true!

It seems strange to think of all BAA staff as bureaucrats .. I was one, om the front line day in/day out and did all I could to 'smooth out the flow' ..even though neither me..or the Duty team were imported from the production industry!.

BAA now have 'first and last impressions' staff ..now what do you think they have archived over the last year or so (many of them imported from outside of aviation), whats your first and last impression of many Airports?!

Retail has a large footprint at Airports, however us with memories recall the Government/CAA RPI - formula on parking and landing charges, forcing BAA to grow the non-regulated parts of its business (Retail, Car Parking and Property), to increase profits and fund much of its internal capital expenditure. Now I'm not defending the amount of space retail takes up, just explaining why it does.

[old,not bold]

forcing BAA to grow the non-regulated parts of its business (Retail, Car Parking and Property),

With respect, Sir, the formula did no such thing. BAA Directors chose, all on their own, to follow the strategy of regarding an airport as a shopping mall with a guaranteed footfall and dwell time, and to exploit that in demanding huge rents and concession fees. The income this generated went/goes firstly to finance the construction of the areas, and additional grandiose terminals dedicated to retail, and secondly to profits and shareholders.

All that the focus on retail has done, in the last 2 decades, is create the situation that LHR is now facing. Those of us who have been saying since 1985 that this was/is the inevitable outcome get no pleasure from being right.

[Out Of Trim]

BAA now have 'first and last impressions' staff ..now what do you think they have archived over the last year or so (many of them imported from outside of aviation), whats your first and last impression of many Airports?!

The first impression most passengers get on arrival at LHR or LGW, is a filthy dirty Jet bridge with various items of rubbish strewn about; swept out of aircraft by cleaners who leave leaking gash bags all over the place creating a sticky mess that never gets mopped properly. Or boxes and detritus dumped by cabin crews and left until the next cleaning which could be a literally days later.

It should be possible to have these areas swept every few hours by a team of cleaners that could really make a huge improvement to that first impression.

[Musket90]

The restructuring of BAA departments and job roles at airports over the last year or so, particularly with front line staff, has not worked simply because those doing the restructuring didn't fully understand how each department, and the teams in them, worked in the first place and didn't realise that people with the necessary knowledge and experience rather than so called behavioural skills actually matter. Most of the new job role profiles are so non-specific with lots of fluffy wording no-one knows what they actually mean. They were written by consultants who know little about the business so that may explain it.

Consequently many vastly experienced staff have been either forced to leave or have chosen to leave to seek jobs elsewhere where their experience is recognised and they are valued as individuals.

BAA has lost the plot, key experinced staff are continuing to leave as a result. Things will get worse before they get better

[liquid sunshine]

I think that BAA does do a good job under difficult circumstances. The company is well aware of the short comings of certain parts of their infrastructure and have plans in hand to rectify them. I say to all the people who criticise BAA and wish to see it broken up:
1. How many companies could afford to make the kind of investment that BAA make? Not very many I suspect. Consequently the service and infrastrucure would be even worse.
2. The airlines moan and whinge about BAA and would like to see it broken up purely so they could put the squeeze on the new owners to reduce costs. BAA is a strong company and won't be bullied by the airlines which pi**es them off no end.
3. BAA is very good at ther operational side of things.. look at the number of issues MAN have had recently.

Some people don't know they are on to a good thing until its is gone......