Editorial: Heathrow is the gateway to London – it needs to swing itself open
DURING the pandemic, the travel industry long claimed they should be treated differently.
The ensuing chaos at airports, then, was the fault of the government for failing to do so.
Heathrow was given special consideration by the Civil Aviation Authority, who allowed it to increase landing fees by more than 50 per cent to £30.19 per passenger, to fill the holes in their budget. Now that passenger numbers are back at almost 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, that special consideration has been revoked.
The CAA “doesn’t understand” what it takes to have decent customer service, or so says Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye. Perhaps neither does he.
During the pandemic, there was real sympathy for the travel and tourism industry, set to be worth £57bn to the UK economy by 2025. They were subject to an uncertainty that lasted well beyond the domestic restrictions on hospitality and retail.
However, pleading for Covid-19 consideration will only last so long. The failure to use the time wisely to plan for reopening of travel, to start bringing on new staff in anticipation of a surge in demand, rests with the industry.
The four-day weekend for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was announced in 2020. Yet airports and airlines seemed surprised by the sudden demand for travel during that week. Holland-Kaye can hardly lament the CAA’s inability to understand the importance of customer performance when thousands have been stranded in hours-long queues. The inflated landing fees have been pushing up prices to justify an enhanced customer experience without actually delivering on that customer experience.
Heathrow is the foremost airport into London and should be a representation of what the capital and the country has to offer. Instead the government sponsored “Great Britain” posters have been barely visible in recent weeks over the heads of tired and anxious travellers.