London Heathrow Airport - Too many shops, Too few snowploughs
THERE'S an old joke in which Heathrow is painted as Britain's biggest shopping centre.
The fact that millions of its customers happen to come by plane is incidental.
It was a dig at the airport's owner BAA, suggesting it's more interested in selling booze and perfume than flying planes.
While clearly an exaggeration, the company has spent vast fortunes building glitzy new terminals stuffed with shiny shops.
If a fraction of this money had been ploughed into the right equipment the Christmas holiday plans of thousands of famillies would not have been melted in the snow.
The fact that Gatwick's new owners invested an extra £8million in the kind of kit needed to keep the airport open puts BAA to shame.
It also highlights another root of the problem. Before being forced to sell Gatwick, BAA had a stranglehold on Britain's major airports.
This made it arrogant and complacent and loathe to invest in the kind of equipment needed to cope with such deep freezes.
The break-up of BAA was designed to stimulate competition on prices, leading to lower fares for passengers. If this snowballs into a fight to see who copes best with winter weather so much the better.
Another major weakness in BAA's performance has been its failure to communicate, with airlines and passengers alike.
In Paris the airport authorities make an early call, telling the likes of BA how many flights to cancel.
It is then left to the airlines to manage their schedules and decided which services to scrap.
The beauty of this system - it's called management - BAA would do well to emulate is that passengers don't waste time trying to catch planes without a cat in hell's chance of taking off.
While this wont stop some travellers being disappointed, at least they will be comfortable at home with a chance of rebooking.
What's more the airport wont look like a refugee camp, with children sleeping on the floor. Images which damage Britain's image abroad.
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12/05/2011
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09/07/2013
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10/24/2013
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05/29/2015
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09/03/2015
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09/28/2015
Denim
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12/03/2011