Category Archives: Airports

Red faces in Qatar?

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Akbar Al Baker is the famously combative boss of Qatar Airways. He is happy to roundly criticise anyone at the drop of a hat – his own employees, aircraft manufacturers who are late delivering new aircraft, other airlines, airline alliances (until he decided to join one) and airports. On a bad day, he makes Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary look the essence of charm and diplomacy.

Executives at Heathrow Airport have grown used to Mr Al Baker’s outbursts but must have become a little nervous when he was suddenly made a director of the airport, following a purchase of 20% of the company by Qatar’s sovereign investment fund. Mr Al Baker already has experience in managing airports since he is in charge of the new Doha International Airport which is about to open.

The new Doha airport is actually much-delayed already. There have been some serious construction issues and – predictably – Mr Al Baker has been at pains to blame lazy and incompetent foreign contractors. Some of the delays appear to have been down to constantly changing demands for the design which are rumoured to have come from the Emir himself which might explain Mr Al Baker’s relatively sanguine acceptance of the years of delay.

At the start of this year, everything seemed to be back on track. The plan was for the airport to open now with some smaller airlines being moved immediately and the major airlines moved later in the year when all the premium Lounges and other facilities have been completed. Unfortunately, the “soft opening” has been cancelled at short notice and the airport is now delayed “indefinitely”.

It seems the Qatar safety authorities are not prepared to accept the building for public use. They strengthened the requirements for public buildings following a fire in a mall last year which killed nineteen people. Unfortunately, those in charge of the new airport must have been unaware that the rules would apply to them. There is no mention of how much work will be needed to bring the airport up to a proper specification but the fact that no time-frame is being given suggests the alterations will be serious.

The Qataris are in danger of making those in charge of the new Brandenburg Airport in Berlin look almost competent.

Meanwhile, the other directors and executives at Heathrow, with its redeveloped Terminal Two on-time and on-budget, might want to offer their newest director some advice on how to run an airport.

 

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Will there by chaos at US airports?

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On Friday, the FAA wrote to airports and airlines in the US warning that if there was no agreement to a new budget by 1st March, the FAA would be obliged to make immediate spending cuts and these could lead to delays of around 90 minutes at peak times.

In the absence of a budget deal, the FAA say they will lay-off all their 47,000 staff for one day a fortnight to ensure they remain within the current budget. They estimate that such a reduction in staffing levels would produce delays at the busiest times.

Delays of that magnitude, assuming they hit all airports at the same time, could easily produce gridlock in US aviation. There is such dependency on connecting traffic in the US that delays of an hour or so, if they were fairly common and went on for days at a time, could result in so many people missing booked flights, airlines would face serious problems getting people to their destination.

The obvious advice is to avoid going to the US from the end of March onwards when the cuts are likely to start hitting. However, we have serious doubts about whether this will happen.

There are lots of ways of cutting budgets. Laying staff off for two days a month is an obvious method but surely not the most sensible. The same sum could be saved by stopping spending on some major capital projects until a new budget deal can be worked out. Of course, delaying projects will also hit the traveller but in a much less immediate and dramatic way.

Over the weekend, several commentators suggested that the FAA was making such aggressive warnings as a way of frightening legislators into action. The FAA was accused of playing politics. They have now back-tracked a little saying they will of course do their best to ensure that any delays are kept to a minimum.

There is still a chance a deal can be worked out to save the budget and, if that proves impossible, the FAA will be under great pressure to avoid doing what it has threatened. We would not put money on it but, somehow, we have a feeling that a way will be found to keep America flying.

 

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What went wrong at Terminal 5?

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Firstly, I have no time for those who moan about delays and cancellations caused by snow at Heathrow. If an airport has just two runways which are full to capacity and they need to close them in rotation for snow-clearing, then it is pretty obvious that the capacity is going to go down by half. Then there are additional delays due to clearing work on taxiways and problems with grounded aircraft – Heathrow is built on a very cramped space and not only lacks runways but does not have very much spare space for extra manoeuvring. In other words, as soon as snow starts to settle, you can be pretty sure that Heathrow is going down to around 30% of capacity. Don’t waste time blaming the airport or the airlines – blame successive governments who have completely failed to plan, despite all the warnings from the aviation industry.

Secondly, I am actually rather a fan of Terminal 5. Most of the time, it works well and manages to handle a large number of passengers and aircraft in a very small space.

However, when snow hit Heathrow on Friday and Sunday, something went very wrong at Terminal 5 and no one seems to be admitting it or taking responsibility.

Airlines were told to cancel a large number of departures. For many, this was not a problem because several European airports were suffering as well, The airport made longhaul flights a priority. On Friday and Sunday, Virgin was able to fly most of its schedule and get aircraft away with around ninety minutes delay. Other longhaul airlines were able to do the same on the flights they had been allowed to operate.

BA cut a greater percentage of its longhaul flights than other operators but on Friday had to  give up on some of these after passengers had been on board for several hours because the crew had run out of legal flying hours. On Sunday, the position was a little better (only a flight to Las Vegas seems to have been cancelled after passengers had boarded) but most longhaul flights that did operate were leaving four hours late – at least twice the delay suffered by other airlines.

Just to emphasise the fact, the relatively few services BA runs from Terminals 1 and 3, but those that did operate from there, were departing much closer to schedule.

The issue at Terminal 5 seems to revolve around de-icing and aircraft getting trapped by other parked aircraft.

I appreciate that each incidence of winter weather is different but BA and Heathrow had plenty of warning about the conditions on Friday and Sunday and are supposed to have spent large sums on contingency planning. After the mess of Friday, they had all day Saturday to work out how to get things right on Sunday but, whilst it was a little better, the performance at Terminal 5 was still way below that of the other terminals.

What went wrong? When flights get cancelled, aircraft need to be parked. Surely, making arrangements for that is part of the contingency planning. De-icing is hardly an unusual requirement either. Ensuring you have de-icing capacity for the flights you intend to operate should not be too difficult.

I have no doubt that some serious questions are now being asked of those responsible at BA’s headquarters. Unfortunately, the airline is still retaining its public stance that they did everything they could and it was the airport’s fault which is clearly not the case. 

Time for a public apology.

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Welcome to Ozzy International Airport

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There are rumours in the local press in Birmingham that the airport is considering re-naming itself to honour one of Birmingham’s most famous sons, the illustrious Ozzy Osbourne. If Liverpool can do it with John Lennon and Belfast with George Best then why not Birmingham? 

Actually, there are an awful lot of reasons why not.

Birmingham is in the process of extending its runway and wants to be taken seriously as an international airport. Liverpool is a fairly minor regional airport which wanted publicity and to differentiate itself from the much bigger Manchester Airport. Gimmick names are all very well for regional or budget airports that want to cash in on a local celebrity, but not for an airport with serious ambitions (even if some of Birmingham’s ambitions are a little unrealistic). Changing the name to “Birmingham Airport, Ozzy Osbourne International” would make it into an international joke.

However, it does look as if there is some truth in the rumour which just highlights the problems of an airport with a mixed group of investors. Birmingham is 49% owned by seven local councils, with 48% owned by a foreign pension fund and the balance in an employee trust. A Birmingham councillor has said “we are looking into the possibility of honouring Black Sabbath in some way” at the airport. The airport itself has said they have no knowledge of any re-naming. 

Birmingham Council is thought to be considering selling its stake in the airport and we suspect the management of the airport would welcome such a move if it led to a reduction in councillors trying to interfere with their job.

Still, it would be fun if they did change the name to “Birmingham Airport – Ozzy Osbourne International”. They could even use BOO as their airport code.

 

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US airport security and guns

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The Transport Security Administration is one of the most disliked government institutions in the US. They are constantly criticised for the search methods they use at airport security, for the behaviour of their staff and for alleged inefficiencies. No one enjoys airport security checks and the freedom-loving Americans dislike them more than most.

There are regular calls for airport security to be wound down or even scrapped altogether because – so the arguments run – it is not strong enough to stop an organised terrorist attack and the costs of operating it exceed the value of any lives it might save.

It is true that a group of sophisticated terrorists will always be able to find a way to cause damage. They will go for the weakest link and in 2001, it just happened that US airport security for domestic flights was far less stringent than in the rest of the world.

But airport security does not just protect against organised terrorism. There are plenty of individual nutcases out there who would like to make a posthumous name for themselves.

This year, the TSA will remove around 1500 guns from passengers who were about to board a flight. The figure is slightly up on previous years, maybe because of improved detection or maybe there are just more idiots who think it reasonable to carry a gun on an aircraft. Of course, most if not all the people who had these guns had no intention of doing any harm on the aircraft – but it only takes one.

I do not enjoy airport security but scrapping or downgrading security in a country that has weak controls on guns is a recipe for disaster because the unthinkable will happen – just as it did on Friday.

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A welcome travel deal to Stansted

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Not only is Stansted airport a schlep, it’s also pricey to get to. So we welcome the news that Stansted Express has launched an exclusively online ticket aimed at couples, friends and colleagues. At £10 each way for each person Liverpool St-Stansted (or £9 from Tottenham Hale), this “Web Duo” ticket will cut the cost for those travelling to the airport together.

The special fare is available only for two adult return journeys, and provides a saving of £23 on the normal fare. It is only available at their website, at stanstedexpress.com.

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Has anyone a good thing to say about Luton?

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Luton Airport used to be such a pleasure. Easy to get to, affordable parking, human scale, a short walk to the plane. How things have changed. The more that’s been invested in the infrastucture the worse the walks, the queues, and the tat seem to get.

And now the money-grubbing. The airport received much negative publicity a couple of years ago when it was the first to introduce a “dropping-off fee” for visitors. And now the gouge continues with the “plastic bag scam”. More than one reader of ours has reported that security staff are being difficult about the size of transparent bags for liquid screening, on occasion refusing bags that are actually given out free at other airports. We have the full story here, but in the meantime it’s worth being up to speed on the what the DoT says, which is simply that the bag should be transparent, re-sealable and approximately 20 cm by 20 cm. If you’ve had grief over this, let us know.

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No news from Heathrow

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Yesterday was the first day of arriving Olympic athletes at Heathrow. The news channels had their reporters stationed on the Bath Road (with nice views of the runway but nowhere near the terminals) ready to give non-stop action reports on the shambles as it happened. No doubt producers had opposition politicians lined up to come into the studio to call for a judicial enquiry into the Government fiasco. Newspapers probably had their front-page headlines ready.

Then, nothing happened. Well, athletes arrived and departed for their accommodation. One coach driver got lost and some Australians missed their sailing gear but were reunited with it after less than an hour. It would take a fairly desperate journalist to make much of a story out of that. 

All the political parties are responsible for the serious over-crowding at Heathrow which is due to the lack of a proper airport policy for over thirty years.  Nor can the media avoid responsibility since many newspapers have been virulent in their opposition to new runways or airports. Both the Labour and Coalition governments have cut staff at the Border Agency and given it extra duties. What can you expect?

The media and opposition politicians will deny it till they are blue in the face but it is hard to escape the impression that some people actually want the Olympics to be a bit of a mess. There is a dividing line between a media and opposition that holds the government to account and one that positively wills it to lose. 

Yesterday was Heathrow’s first test and it passed. Let’s hope it can do as well for the rest of the Olympics and then, maybe, the newspapers will run editorials praising the airport management and Harriet Harman will appear on Newsnight to congratulate all those responsible for making the airport work in such difficult conditions. That would be fun.

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Berlin’s new airport delayed

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Lordy – Berlin’s new Brandenburg airport is NOT going to open on 3rd June after all. With less than four weeks to go it seems that fire protection services are not going to be in place in time. A new opening date has yet to be set.

On the one hand one of course sympathises, but on the other it’s got to be a world-class omnishambles for the planners to get so close to the opening ceremony to discover such a cock-up. Let’s hope no such googlies arrive on London 2012′s door at this late stage – it would really really spoil some world-class schadenfreude!

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All-night flights at Heathrow

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Emirates have floated the idea of flying their Airbus A380′s into Heathrow during the current curfew hours. They argue that the A380′s are much quieter than other aircraft and disruption will be minimal.

Unfortunately, this rather misses the point.

If you live in a city, especially if you are near an aircraft flight-path, you get used to noise. It is not just aircraft noise but traffic, police sirens and all the general hub-hub of a big city.

At the moment, the airport is allowed to accept some flights during its normal closed hours when there has been significant disruption to schedules due to weather or some other problem. During normal hours, aircraft are taking off or landing every minute or so. The noise just blends into the background, along with all the standard noise of the city. The occasional “out of hours” landing causes much more disruption because it happens when there is relatively little other noise. Instead of a fairly constant drone, which your brain blocks off, there is a sudden, loud noise for a couple of minutes as the aircraft passes above.

As for A380′s being so much quieter than other jets. Maybe they are, but they are certainly not silent!

In other words, a couple of one-off landings by A380′s during the middle of the night will cause much greater disruption than any normal flight during the day.

Definitely not a good idea!

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