Heathrow: Not fit for purpose

Delays, queues and frustrations over lost luggage and the airport's rambling layout are now so common that many executives are taking any alternative they can find.

Sir Thomas Harris, vice-chairman of Standard Chartered Capital Markets, said years of under-investment and poor planning had left Heathrow no longer "fit for purpose".

The problems have been worsened by security measures imposed after last summer's "liquid bomb" scare which limits hand baggage to one item.

Sir Thomas, a former senior diplomat, said: "The result is an experience so unpleasant that many international executives I meet will do almost anything to avoid travelling through Heathrow.

"The City of London in particular will be very hard hit if foreign customers steer clear of these conditions."

One-bag limit on hand luggage 'does not improve security'

Sir Thomas is the latest public figure to criticise Heathrow. Sir Terence Conran accused airport operator BAA of concentrating too much on its shops. He said: " Terminal 1 originally had two or three shops, plenty of seating space and was calm and clean.

"BAA at that time was customer-focused but when it became a privately owned company it realised that it could expand its shopping activities without planning permission, hence the bazaar atmosphere that now pervades their terminals."

Former chancellor Lord Lamont described Heathrow as a "really nasty place". The failings of Heathrow have been raised as one of the biggest threats to "UK plc" in meetings that Gordon Brown has held with business leaders.

The stark message comes the day after City minister Kitty Ussher said the Heathrow hassle factor was a threat to the health of the economy. Business leaders contacted by the Standard said "Heathrow hell" was already starting to hit the country's competitiveness.

Management consultant Alan Briefel, 48, from Brondesbury Park, said: "I have numerous clients and suppliers based overseas who are curtailing travel to the UK due to their experiences.

"BAA and Customs and Immigration's short-sighted attitudes and gross incompetence are depriving many businesses, hotels, conference organisers and other organisations of much-needed revenues and opportunities.

"People from abroad are making a systematic attempt to make more conference calls instead of flying.

"The problems at Heathrow are reducing the amount of travel. For sure, people are avoiding coming to Heathrow. Even Stansted and Luton are easier to travel through."

Another said it took longer to clear security at Heathrow than Tel Aviv.

Raphael Gee, 50, from St John's Wood, who often travels to Israel to visit family, said: "Tel Aviv is one of the most security conscious airports, but going through central security is nowhere near as terrible as at Heathrow. At Tel Aviv every passenger is interviewed by a security official who asks them questions about what they have been doing and how they travelled to Tel Aviv.

"Then you check in your bags, and you go through central security, which doesn't take nearly as much time as going through Heathrow. They have plenty of equipment and scanners that are laid out a lot better than at Heathrow.

"It is beginning to take longer to get on a plane at Heathrow than at Tel Aviv - which is ridiculous"

Mr Gee, a company secretary, will travel to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport in September but will avoid Heathrow altogether because of the problems he has faced in the past.

He said: "I am going to take the Eurostar to Brussels and then fly from Brussels airport to Tel Aviv. It will be quicker and works out around £50 cheaper overall than travelling from Heathrow."

Alan Hulme, a 50-year-old management consultant from Battersea, said: "The lack of customer service at the airport is culturally embedded. I feel that the staff are there to be awkward and unpleasant."

Chauffeur David Pitt regularly picks up customers from Heathrow. He said: "Sometimes I can be waiting for 50 minutes for the 'baggage in hall' sign to appear and can be waiting for one and a half hours for the passengers to come through."

A spokeswoman for Heathrow airport said figures from April, which was their busiest Easter on record, show 97 per cent of passengers queued for 10 minutes or less at security. She added that 95 per cent of passengers queued for five minutes or less. "Individual one-off instances do not reflect the considerable amount of work Heathrow has done to cut queueing times.

"BAA has spent in excess of £20million, has opened 22 new security lanes and employed 1,400 new security officers across the group since August last year with the single aim of cutting queueing times."

She added that the amount of time passengers spend queueing for check-in is the responsibility of individual airlines.

Earlier this month it was revealed Heathrow is in danger of losing its title as Europe's premier hub, with passenger numbers falling by 1.8 per cent year-on-year.

Instead, some frequent flyers are making connections through European rivals such as Frankfurt, Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol with British-based business travellers living outside London saying they prefer to take short-haul flights from local airports rather than struggle through Heathrow's crowded terminals and lounges.