Heathrow nightmare just gets worse and worse

Another 100,000 passengers contemplated Christmases ruined and holidays wrecked by the partial closure of Heathrow, as snow and ice kept its second, southerly runway closed until 5.30pm yesterday. It brings the number of travellers to and from the airport with journeys disrupted by the airport's inability to deal with extreme weather to 600,000. Many of those camped out at the hub of world aviation will be obliged to spend Christmas in the unholy transience of an airport terminal.
By 7am yesterday, as Heathrow struggled to cope with the sheer number of people stranded, around 1,000 hopeful passengers were queuing simply for admission to Terminal 3, the key long-haul terminal at Heathrow. Two women with toddlers in pushchairs were turned away for reasons, according to one official, of "health and safety", with security staff checking tickets against lists of confirmed departures, and enforcing a strict ban on anyone departing later.
The women were directed to one of the hastily erected marquees outside the terminal where the temperature was slightly above freezing. The only brightness conferred upon those denied access took the form of a Salvation Army van, dispensing tea, coffee and sympathy to travellers whose journeys had changed character from aspiration to desperation.
Syed Muhammad Islam, a student at the University of Leeds hoping to fly on Oman Air to India, is camped outside the airport chapel. He said he could not afford to continue to eat at airport prices. "They haven't given us any indication. They say 'maybe today; maybe tomorrow'. They are not sure about anything, they're just giving us 'maybe' answers, like 10 per cent, 20 per cent. They have given no confirmation."
As water dripped through a hole in the roof beside his makeshift camp, he said Indian airports would have made a much better job of the closure. "They would be shifting us to some accommodation at least so we don't have to sleep on the floor. They would definitely have made us go to a hotel or somewhere. It might be cheap, but at least they would have done that for us."
As the world's leading aviation hub degenerated to something akin to a prison, airlines' anger at their mounting losses intensified, at least in private. One senior executive railed against the "astonishing failures in communication" by BAA, the airport's Spanish owner.
22/12/10 The Independent, UK

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Categories: Airports Dec 2010, Foreign Dec 2010