Britain’s Airports: A Case Of Travel Sickness
Travelling by air once used to be fun. Not any more. It’s now the ordeal we have to put up with to get to wherever we want to go. Long queues at most UK airports even outside the official holiday periods and half-term weekends. Delays & cancellations without apologies or explanation and (in the case of many budget airlines) no refunds,compensation or re-allocation to an alternative flight.For those passengers without European Union passports,all this has to be preceded by applications for visas at the Consulates of the countries they wish to visit (more queues). Even if they surmount this hurdle,there’s always the anxiety that they may not be allowed back into the UK on their return. For everyone the stress is excacerbated by the guilty feeling instilled by the ‘green lobby’ that we should not be flying at all. We are now supposed to calculate our ‘carbon footprint’ and the extent to which we are responsible for global environmental pollution.
Yet we are taking to the air more than ever before,to escape the daily routine. BAA (British Airports Authority) say that (despite the conservationist protests) they will have to expand the country’s airports,which is why they are now buying up land and traditional villages around Standsted (30 miles north-east of London). The objective is to increase passenger capacity from the current 23 million to more than 35 million. London Heathrow (until Terminal 5 opens in March 2008) and Gatwick are at their limit. It is predicted that in 2030 there will be 300 million passengers flying to/from south-east England. There were ‘only’ 117 million in 2000. That of course doesn’t include Liverpool,Manchester,Glasgow and the UK’s other airports.
It would help if these places were more congenial. They are not. Heathrow was recently described as ‘a national scandal,grubby,a terrible experience and damaging to Britain’s reputation for tourism & business’.A BAA official has conceded that customer service is not their priority. Anyone who has used the budget airlines will know that this can apply to them as well. (Irish-owned) Ryanair in particular has a very poor public image. They are not always as ‘low-cost’ as they claim. Yes – if you book well in advance for an out-of-season journey. This can be just 2p return plus airport taxes. However,don’t forget the £10 (return) charge for a 15 kilo suitcase,
£5.50p for each additional kilo,the credit card fee for booking online (there’s no other way), £9.50p for insurance and now £4 for ‘airport handling’.
You can also pay another £4 on the internet for ‘priority boarding’,which means you will be one step ahead of the mob. Children & pensioners can get trampled in the stampede as Ryanair don’t allocateting. Take your own food and drink. On-board prices can be exorbitant. Ryanair staff have been criticised for rudeness,even to the disabled. Ryanair argue in response that they are Europe’s 3rd largest airline and carried 40 million passengers in 2006,so they must be doing something right. Perhaps for many of these there was no realistic alternative. Happy Holidays!