More U.S. Airlines Headed for 'World's Worst' Heathrow Airport

LONDON — Like many travelers, Robert Mann enjoyed a free aerial tour of London recently before his plane was finally granted permission to land at crowded Heathrow Airport.

Congestion kept his plane circling for a good 20 minutes. But the aviation consultant from Port Washington, N.Y., considers himself lucky, since planes using the popular airport are often delayed much longer, creating what he calls "aluminum overcast" in the sky above.

Thanks to the Open Skies aviation agreement that takes effect Friday, (March 28) more U.S. airlines are about to achieve their long-sought goal of access to Heathrow, which is only 15 miles west of central London with connections via the Underground transit system.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines has been using Gatwick Airport, at least an hour's drive outside London, but is about to start service to Heathrow thanks to its partnership with Air France. Continental and American also are inaugurating Heathrow-bound flights.

Even though slots at Heathrow are coveted, many passengers consider the airport one of the most frustrating experiences in the world.

"Heathrow is not a stellar example of what an airport should be like," said Anthony Concil, spokesman for the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association. "The passenger experience has been abysmal there in recent years."

The airport was picked, along with Chicago's O'Hare, as the world's worst airport in a survey of thousands of travelers last year conducted by the TripAdvisor travel information Web site.

As the world's busiest airport for international travelers, Heathrow hosts 90 airlines that carried 67.9 million passengers last year. But the airport, originally built to handle 45 million passengers a year, suffers from overcrowding.

According to statistics by Britain's Civil Aviation Authority, 38 percent of all flights arriving or departing from Heathrow in 2007 were delayed.

Some experts say the situation may only get worse once Open Skies takes effect.

"As more demand is placed on the airport, you'll see even more ground delays," said William Voss, president and chief executive of the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va., which promotes aviation safety around the world.

"You'll see a lot of frustration and canceled flights, and when the slightest thing goes wrong you'll see a major disruption in services," he said.

Henry Harteveldt, a San Francisco-based travel analyst with Forrester Research, said it's important to remember that most, if not all, the slots being taken by U.S. airlines at Heathrow under Open Skies have come from the pool allocated to other airlines.

"Thus the overall number of flight takeoffs and landings at Heathrow shouldn't increase dramatically," he said.

But Harteveldt acknowledged that congestion still poses an enormous challenge for Heathrow.

"Just because the airport and its air space can safely accommodate these flights, doesn't mean they'll operate on time," he said.

Airport owner BAA, a subsidiary of Grupo Ferrovial of Spain, wants to build a third runway at Heathrow. But the move is vehemently opposed by environmentalists and even London's Mayor Ken Livingstone.

For London-bound passengers, new fees will soon add insult to injury. Britain's aviation regulator recently announced hikes of more than 20 percent in fees charged to passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick.

Responding to a BAA request for more money to fund improvements, the Civil Aviation Authority said it would allow passenger fees to jump 23.5 percent at Heathrow to the equivalent of $25.82 per passenger, effective April 1. It is allowing a 21 percent increase at Gatwick, to the equivalent of $13.70 per passenger.

The fee is charged to airlines for each passenger departure or arrival, and is typically passed on to the consumer.

On the ground, Heathrow passengers have also grown increasingly frustrated over long security lines and crowded terminals.

But BAA officials said those conditions should improve this week (March 27) when a new Terminal Five opens for use by British Airways. It will be able to handle 30 million passengers a year.

The new terminal "will breathe new life into Heathrow, allowing us to continue our transformation of the rest of the airport," BAA Chairman Nigel Rudd told BBC Radio.

Heathrow's terminals are all scheduled to be renovated or replaced in the coming years.

In the meantime, U.S. carriers are eager to assert their new rights under Open Skies and create a presence there.

Airline consultant Mike Boyd of the Boyd Group of Evergreen, Colorado said U.S. airlines are "spending sums just short of the German war debt to get slots" on the assumption that being at Heathrow is a license to print money.

"If the U.S. carrier has alliance partners with a strong connecting system there, they might get some incremental traffic over what they were getting at Gatwick," he said. "But without that, Heathrow isn't any really big advantage for U.S. consumers flying to London, and most U.S.-generated consumers don't care."

In the end, he said he wouldn't be surprised if "some carriers decide to sell off their Heathrow slots and move back to Gatwick."