Heathrow airport always seems to be in the news lately!

Much of the recent news comes down to the dispute over the highly contentious third runway that has been rejected by the government.

Now the chairman of BAA, Sir Nigel Rudd, has added his two cents worth by saying that the Conservative Party’s policy on the airport to refuse a third runway will see Heathrow become a “second-tier airport” in the future.

There is no room for ambiguity with this description, and Sir Nigel Rudd added that London will become “less competitive” as a result of the decision to keep Heathrow operating with just two runways.

The remarks were made in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, where he said that the decision of the government “is sadly based on small-town politics of the ballot box rather than strategic needs of the nation".

Rudd is just starting his second term as the chairman of BAA, and clearly his comments have been designed to create an impact as he kicks off his second three-year stint.

He is absolutely adamant that Heathrow needs to expand, claiming that the UK as a whole will receive fewer international passengers as a result of the decision whilst other international airports in Europe continue to expand.

The proposed third runway at Heathrow divided the nation with fierce opponents and equally fierce supporters fighting it out on both sides.

The opponents claim that with the government taking global warming seriously it cannot possibly expand airports like Heathrow because this is not going to do the environment any favours.

Although the decision has been made, it seems that this is an argument that is going to be around for a long time to come.

Flying BA from London Heathrow can now take you even further…

British Airways (BA) has expanded its list of global destinations from Heathrow to include the city of Tokyo in Japan. The route, which begins at Heathrow Airport on February 19 2011, travels to Haneda Airport in Ōta, a special municipality of Tokyo.

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Shopping website Kelkoo has been forced to apologise to the British Airports Authority (BAA), after a survey sponsored by the retailer was found to contain inaccuracies.

The report, which appears to have been removed from Kelkoo’s website, was conducted an independent company, the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).

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Travellers who have become accustomed to low prices at airport duty-free stores could be in for a shock when they next visit their local hub, after a survey by online retailer, Kelkoo, revealed that the average price of goods at European airports was just 6% lower than on the high street.

Kelkoo’s survey also found that the public’s perception of airport prices was wildly incorrect, with 59% (or almost 6 in 10) of interviewees expecting to find bargains of up to 20% at airport duty-frees.

Heathrow, arguably the busiest airport in the world, claimed the wooden spoon, offering the ‘worst tax-free discounts’ in Europe, with a rate of just 3.1%. To put that figure into perspective, a bottle of water that costs 75p on the high street would cost around 72p at the London airport – hardly a steal.

Berlin-Schönefeld Airport offers a discount of 4.6%, whilst Lyon St. Exupery and Charles de Gaulle in France knock 11.9% and 11.5% off their prices, respectively. The two French airports topped Kelkoo’s survey, with the best duty free prices in Europe. Gatwick Airport, on the other hand, offers a meagre 5% off a bag of jelly babies or a hairdryer.

Strangely, the value of goods fluctuates enormously between airports, especially with regard to luxury goods, such as handbags and perfume, and electronics. At Heathrow, for example, a designer Dolce and Gabanna handbag will set you back £1,020, whereas the same bag at Rome Airport costs £696, around a third less.

Kelkoo boss, Bruce Fair, noted that airport stores could no longer compete with online shops, which routinely offer discounts of around 12% – “higher overheads, decreased competition, and less choice mean that ‘tax free’ shops are not always the best place to find bargains.”

The survey highlights an ongoing trend of poor deals at UK airports; just a few weeks ago, the Post Office discovered that passengers were being fleeced out of their holiday money by airport bureaux de change, losing £16 for every £286 converted from sterling to Euros.

A hotel chain at Heathrow Airport has banned all vuvuzelas from the premises, after a resident manager was kept awake by the plastic horns. The firm, Premier Inn, plans to enforce the ban until the end of the World Cup, regardless of whether England is ejected before the tournament’s climax.

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Consumer publication Which? has branded airport parking charges at Heathrow Airport as “ridiculously high”, following a survey carried out by Which Car?

The survey looked into parking charges for seven days at a variety of on and off-site car parks at 15 major terminals in the UK and also looked at the parking which is often included when staying at an airport hotel and at the meet-and-greet services.

A huge variation in price was uncovered with Heathrow’s on-site parking coming out as the priciest option at £88.70. If Heathrow travellers are willing to put up with a little inconvenience and park off-site then it is possible to reduce this by £35, using Purple Parking. Compare your parking charges with us, and see what you can save.

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British Airways
(BA) was forced to cancel 200 flights on Tuesday, as a strike by the airline’s cabin crew team entered its second day. Willie Walsh, boss at BA, claims that contingency plans are holding strong, and 60% of its long haul flights are flying as normal.

Walsh has begun rebranding BA’s planes with the words ‘keep the flag flying,’ in a bid to raise support for the airline, but there are signs that the Irishman’s perseverance could be about to pay dividends: Unite, and its associated cabin crew branch, BASSA, are being torn apart by infighting.

Speaking out about the BA strike to The Times newspaper, an as-yet unnamed member of BASSA’s management team said,

‘Walsh will win. How can he not? To be honest, he has already done it. He has already destroyed the union.’ The informant went on to state that BASSA’s ‘uncontrollable’ managers were jeopardising negotiations between Unite and BA.

BASSA is a part of Unite, but the branch operates from within BA, helping to ease disputes between the airline and its crew.

Walsh intimated that relations had soured between BASSA and Unite on 19 May, describing the former as the ‘tail that is wagging the dog.’ The union is apparently powerless to prevent BASSA overruling peace talks with BA.

Unite continues to press for negotiations, but Duncan Holley, secretary of BASSA, believes that talks would progress faster if Willie Walsh was encouraged to ‘step aside.’

The branch hopes that Keith Williams, BA’s financial officer, will prove to be less stubborn than Walsh is, and help stop the dispute becoming a farce.

The current strike at Heathrow Airport will last for two more days. Two more pickets are expected on the 30 May and 5 June.

Unite claims that 473 members of BA’s cabin crew team failed to turn up for work on Tuesday. BA managed to find enough workers to get 60,000 people in the air, however, roughly 70% of its usual May traffic.

Most people would choose to avoid taking their clothes off in public, given the chance, so when the Labour government forced the installation of full-body or ‘naked’ scanners at UK airports, some travellers began to fear for their modesty.

Five months later, as the machines become commonplace at regional airports, holidaymakers have begun to accept the scanners as a necessity, with 90% of Brits declaring themselves content with current security measures. The use of biometric data, such as iris scans and fingerprints, has also been well received.

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From the end of March, China Airlines will begin offering non-stop flights from Heathrow Airport to the Taiwanese city of Taipei, the first route of its kind in the UK!

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Heathrow has become the first airport in the UK to start using Continental Airlines’ paperless boarding pass system.

The American airline has been using the system in the United States for some time, but until now it has not taken off in the UK.

Now customers flying from Heathrow to the US on Continental Airlines will be able to show their boarding pass on their mobile phones. It consists of a bar code, flight information and passenger information, and there is no way that it can be duplicated.

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