BAA’s £50m bill to avoid snow chaos

BAA to invest in snow-clearing machines and more staff – with the aim that bad weather will never again close Heathrow BAA will invest £50m in avoiding a repeat of the Heathrow snow fiasco after a report said the chaos that gripped Britain’s largest airport was exacerbated by lack of preparation, poor communication and equipment shortages. An inquiry led by BAA’s independent director, Professor David Begg, recommended that Heathrow adopts a new target of never closing due to bad weather and made a total of 14 recommendations. Accepting the report in full, BAA said on Thursday that it would spend £50m on snow-clearing machines, new staff and improving communication with passengers. The Begg panel outlined major failures by BAA that led to the airport being paralysed for four days after a sudden snowfall on 18 December, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers and bringing back familiar scenes of families camping out on terminal floors. Those errors were: • a failure to anticipate the impact of the weather forecast before 18 December, when nearly 13cm of snow fell • the slow clearance of aircraft stands, caused in part by a lack of specialised equipment, which left dozens of jets frozen to the tarmac • “confused and contradictory” messages to airlines and passengers • several failures in internal communication and co-ordination within BAA • the late mobilisation of the executive crisis team Eschewing the apologetic stance that marked its initial reaction to the fiasco, BAA kept up its mantra that Heathrow would only work better if airlines, regulators, air traffic controllers and airport owners worked more closely. The airport group added that British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and bmi had agreed to join it in a “Heathrow partnership” with air traffic controller NATS and the industry regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority. BAA has sought to portray the snow fiasco as symptomatic of a wider lack of communication within the Heathrow campus, a point repeated today by the company’s chief executive, Colin Matthews. “We clearly understand our role in keeping Heathrow open, unless for emergency or safety reasons, but to do that and to achieve the highest standards of passenger care, we need to work more closely and collaboratively with airlines and them with us, and all agree on the necessary training and investment,” he said. “Heathrow is among the most congested airports in the world and the lack of spare capacity means that unlike every other British or European airport, we have literally no room to move when disruption occurs. “This means that any problem, large or small, that slows down the rate of aircraft arriving at or leaving from Heathrow, will disrupt many people.” BAA’s heavy-hitting chairman, Sir Nigel Rudd, said the board was encouraging management to dedicate “all the necessary resources” to ensure an improved response to extreme weather. Air transport Heathrow Weather BAA Travel & leisure Airline industry Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 24, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.