Passengers flying in and out of Heathrow have faced the worst delays in seven years, caused in part by the chaotic opening of Terminal 5. CAA compiled figures released today showed that Heathrow performed worse than Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle in he first three months of this year.
With 44% of flights running more than 15 minutes late, it meant that Heathrow passengers who paid a premium fare to take scheduled services faced more delays than those on charter flights. Passengers also faced an average delay of 25 minutes, compared to an average of 18 minutes across the 10 largest UK airports. This was also Heathrow's worst performance in 7 years.
The punctuality figures come after it emerged that BAA was forced to give nearly £1.2m back to airlines because of the poor service in April. It had to hand more money back to the airlines for an array of performance failings across the airport as a whole.
BAA was 'fined' for delays in passing through security, lack of equipment and inefficient searches in Terminal 5. At Terminal 4 penalties were imposed for poor signs and lack of seats in the departure lounge. |
