Airports operator BAA today pledged to implement 14 recommendations put forward in a hard-hitting report into the pre-Christmas snow crisis which almost crippled Heathrow for almost a week.
The company responded to the inquiry led by non-executive director Professor David Begg by saying it is developing a £50 million Heathrow bad weather resilience plan. BAA was widely condemned for taking several days before a blocked runway could be cleared’ leaving thousands of passengers camped out in terminals.
The panel of experts involved in the inquiry found that there was “no single event or decision” which led to the disruption over December 18-23. The report recommends that Heathrow “should adopt an improved resilience target that the airport never closes as a result of circumstances under its control, except for immediate safety or other emergency threats”.
“This is a demanding target but one which the panel believes is achievable and appropriate for Heathrow. The potential impact of the weather forecast was not fully anticipated in the days preceding the event. This led to a low state of preparedness ahead of the snow and insufficient stock of critical supplies for an event of this scale,” the report says.
Heathrow’s proposed improvements include:
• Revised airport snow plans, including new equipment, increased staff resources and training;
• Crisis management processes;
• Systems for command and control and communication between the airport community (including airlines) and passengers;
• Passenger care and support, in addition to that provided by airlines under EU legislation.
Heathrow now has 166 pieces of snow-clearing equipment, including sweepers, de-icers, blowers, gritters, under-wing tractors and snow removal lorries compared to 47 in December. The airside operations team now has 269 people available and trained to support snow-clearing operations, against to 117 in December.
BAA chief executive Colin Matthews, who commissioned the the Begg winter resilience report, admitted that the airport owner needed “to work more closely and collaboratively with airlines and them with us, and all agree on the necessary training and investment”.
He added: “Heathrow is among the most congested airports in the world and the lack of spare capacity means that unlike every other British or European airport, we have literally no room to move when disruption occurs. This means that any problem, large or small, that slows down the rate of aircraft arriving at or leaving from Heathrow, will disrupt many people.”
Matthews said agreement had been secured with the chief executives of British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, British Midland International, NATS and the Civil Aviation Authority to establish a “Heathrow partnership” for passengers.
This will meet regularly to “publicly reinforce its collective commitment to make every passenger’s journey better than the last one”. Matthews said: “Our aim is to better serve passengers in normal times and at times of disruption, whatever the cause.
“If the entire Heathrow community learns from this report, and works more collaboratively to promote passengers’ interests, then this is a pivotal moment for the airport and its reputation.
“Passengers will win as airlines, the airport and others work together and in some cases put aside historic differences to make Heathrow a better experience for passengers. Following December’s disruption, we invested in new equipment, people and training to enable us to respond better to snow in future. We are now putting together a comprehensive action plan to implement all 14 Begg recommendations.”
BAA chairman Sir Nigel Rudd said: “We are encouraging our management team to dedicate all the necessary resources and engage positively with airlines and others to ensure that extreme weather conditions are better handled next time for the sake of passengers.
“Our response to the enquiry report and our on-going commitment to making Heathrow better is reflected in our £1 billion a year capital programme that is building a new Terminal 2 and modernising the airport’s existing terminals.”