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BA's European rivals cash in after T5 fiasco
Amar Singh19 May 2008
Thousands of business class travellers shunned British Airways and Heathrow following the Terminal 5 fiasco, figures obtained by the Evening Standard show.
High-spending passengers deserted Heathrow in droves, preferring rival airports and airlines for long-haul flights following the botched opening of BA's £4.3 billion terminal.
The companies profiting from Heathrow's woes were European airlines offering alternative routes via hubs such as Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam, and City Airport - which saw a year-on-year rise in passengers of 30 per cent last month.
Heathrow's flagship terminal opened on 27 March with problems with its baggage handling system. It led to more than 20,000 bags being lost and 430 flights cancelled, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
On Friday, BA's chief executive Willie Walsh said he had turned down a £700,000 bonus following the fiasco. Almost all of BA's long-haul flights from Heathrow had been due to switch to Terminal 5 from 30 April but the change has been delayed to next month.
Lufthansa revealed it had recorded a 20 per cent increase in business class passengers flying from Heathrow's Terminal 2 and an 84 per cent rise from City Airport.
The German airline has extended its capacity out of City Airport in the past few months, but saw a phenomenal growth way beyond its expectations. Air France and Dutch-operator KLM also benefited in luring more British fliers during the height of Terminal 5's problems. Most airlines had budgeted for a modest spring in the expectation that demand to fly through BA's new terminal would shoot up.
The figures are a further blow to airports operator BAA and BA as they reveal that some of the country's most lucrative passengers now prefer to take a connecting flight from a European airport or opt for City Airport, which had 298,835 passengers last month.
A spokeswoman for City Airport said: "Issues at other airports might well have encouraged passengers to turn to London City Airport, although we do credit our success to our convenient location, the consistent high standards of service - and a growing route network of 34 destinations has also been key to our success." One businessman who now goes out of his way to avoid Heathrow is Guy Middleton - a Chelsea-based entrepreneur who also runs a design consultancy business in Nanjing, China.
Mr Middleton said: "I have always had a problem with Heathrow. You can fly 6,000 miles in 10 hours and then take another two hours to escape the airport and get to Chelsea. I prefer to fly into the Continent and then fly direct to Nanjing. It saves on the tedious check in times, traffic and security at Heathrow."
Marianne Sammann, Lufthansa's general manager for the UK & Ireland, said: "April was an exceptional month for us and our figures show that more British business travellers are choosing us than ever.
"Business travel is all about short transit times and providing an efficient, reliable service and if you go to airports such as Frankfurt or Munich you immediately see the difference compared with Heathrow. Business people are realising 'when I fly through Heathrow I have to allow for an extra two hours to get there, parking and getting through security'."
