MPs slam Heathrow’s snow plans
13.05.11
A report by the House of Commons’ transport select committee has condemned Heathrow Airport’s inability to deal with a major incident as well as its failure to invest in sufficient equipment to deal with heavy snow. The committee has recommended that the government should oversee airport’s planning for major incidents as well as allowing airport operators to reclaim the cost of looking after stranded passengers if airlines failed to do so for their own customers.
Committee chairman Louise Ellman said: ‘It is clear that Heathrow was totally unprepared to recover from any major incident that necessitated its closure and that its owners under invested in winter resilience equipment. Every airport operator must now be pushed to plan properly for bad weather so that people are not left stranded and without even basic supplies in airport terminals for days on end.’
BAA rejected the transport committee's accusation that Heathrow was ‘totally unprepared’ to cope with a major incident. A spokesman for BAA said: ‘The Begg inquiry [BAA's own investigation in to the incident] found that BAA had historically demonstrated its ability to respond well to earlier weather events, as it did during the airspace closure caused by volcanic ash in 2010.’
The company has already promised to spend £50 million at Heathrow to avoid a repeat of last December's chaos, including in new equipment and in staff and training. It also plans to add new communication systems as well as offering extra passenger care and support. It welcomed the recommendation that the government should take a bigger role in trying prevent similar situations.
To book heathrow airport hotel or heathrow airport car park at the lowest price, click on these links to two great heathrow airport car parking and heathrow airport hotel price comparison page.
