(Updated Below 25 January 2011) Last week, Highlands and Islands MSP, Jamie McGrigor sponsored a cross party briefing event at the Scottish Parliament on BAA’s hike in domestic air passenger fees at Heathrow airport. These are due to come in from April 2011.
The event was organised and hosted by the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) and the airline BMI.
MSPs, including Transport Minister Keith Brown MSP- were joined by BMI Chief Executive Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, senior members of the Scottish Passenger Agents Association and representatives from Scottish industry and tourism.
Air industry experts are warning that the new charges might lead to a reduction in air services between Heathrow and Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, with an inevitable impact on tourism from a decrease in transport connections.
Jamie McGrigor, also Conservative candidate for Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Election 2011, says: ‘This is potentially a very serious issue for Scotland and all of us should be working hard to ensure that there is no reduction in the level or frequency of air services between Scotland and Heathrow’.
Background to BAA
Spanish-owned (Ferrovial) BAA is something of an industry bete noir. it has monopolistic holdings in airports at certain parts of the country including Scotland.
On 19th March 2009 it was ordered by the Competition Commission to sell Gatwick and Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh.
This followed a damning report on BAA’s performance, published in August 2008 and highlighting what were described as its shambolic customer service, overcrowded facilities and appalling delays.
On October 21st 2009, BAA confirmed it was selling Gatwick for £1.51 billion to the investment fund owner of London City airport, Global Infrastructure Partners.
At that point, Ferrovial/BAA dug in, refused to sell any ore of its airpots, got one judgment in its favour but lost on 14th October 2010 when it lost a hearing in the Court of Appeal brought by the Competition Commission.
It now must sell Stansted, and either Edinburgh or Glasgow airports.
In the meantime, BAA has done a hash refurb at Glasgow airport, tarting it up for prospective sale as it is likely to hold o to Edinburgh.
At Glasgow, the people-flows are even more convoluted. The routes for the disabled more peremptory and with walking passengers forced onto short steep stairs down onto a shiny and slippery faux marble – into a selling opportunity for BAA.
All of the changes have been made to maximise the retail selling space, with displays actually set to bar the passage of luggage hauling passengers through the area immediately following the security scanners.
Then BAA announced that while it had completed a £40 million upgrade of the passenger lounge at Edinburgh Airport, the decline in passenger numbers with the recession meant that targets would not be met until 2013.
At its airports, BAA has made the experience of air travel dehumanising and unpleasant and now it is to charge passengers more for the displeasure.
Update 25th January 2011
Labour MSP and Transport Spokesman Charlie Gordon has tabled a motion text immediateyl below) on this subject – a motion which Jamie McGrigor has also supported.
S3M-07764 Charlie Gordon (Glasgow Cathcart) (Scottish Labour): Fight to Retain BMI’s Glasgow/Heathrow Air Link:
‘That the Parliament regards the threatened reduction in the frequency, or complete withdrawal, of BMI’s air service between Glasgow International and London Heathrow airports as a potentially serious blow to the Scottish economy; notes that the catalyst for doubts over the service’s future is the proposed increase in landing charges from April 2011 that has been made by Heathrow’s owners, BAA, of around £10 per passenger; further notes BMI’s intention to lodge a formal complaint under section 41 of the Airports Act 1986 regarding this; calls on the Scottish Government to add its weight to the efforts of other stakeholders to bolster the service, and calls on BAA to agree to impose a moratorium on its proposed increase in landing charges’.
This motion is supported by: Jamie McGrigor, Pauline McNeill, Hugh O’Donnell, Ms Wendy Alexander, Stewart Maxwell, Bill Butler, Jackson Carlaw, Jackie Baillie, Trish Godman, John Park, Gil Paterson, Nanette Milne, John Lamont, Margaret Mitchell, Bill Aitken, Mary Mulligan, Mr Frank McAveety
I strongly disagree with your comment that the recent changes at Glasgow International Airport are a “hash refurb” and that passengers are forced on to ” short sharp stairs” . There is a choice of stairs or a well constructed flowing ramp .
As a regular user of both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports , I prefer the former by a mile , for ease of use and customer facilities . Where weaknesses exist they are largely outwith the control of the management eg SNP cancelation of a rail link to the airport .
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For Kintyre 1: Let’s look at the stairs and the ramp between the security area and the retail outlet, through which all passenger must pass.
The steps are short and steep. The ramp is narrow and turns back upon itself in a hairpin bend. When you get a crowd checking in to a charter flight or two and a press of people heading in that direction, the stairs are treacherous and where several then choose to walk on the ramp, they make things very difficult for the more disabled.
Hitting the polished tiled floor at the foot of the stairs is real hazard for women with high heels. The surface requires great care to walk on without slipping and passengers are often in a hurry.
The route through the retail area is actually interrupted at several points by retail sales stands, forcing passengers with luggage to swerve when it is least convenient to do so. Their purpose is, of course, to prevent people from walking straight through, with these compulsory obstructions designed to create opportunities for products to catch the eye and lead to impromptu purchases.
This is a perfectly acceptable commercial strategy in a space given over to sales. But here we’re talking about the only available route to the transport which is the reason for being in the building. In such a context, this prevention of uninterrupted forward movement is unacceptable.
We agree with you that Glasgow is a more user friendly airport than Edinburgh but that doesn’t make this any less of a hash refurb aimed single-mindedly at ramping up the retail income from the site and supporting a higher price for the airport which is the one BAA will choose to sell.
Glasgow should do well out of such a change of ownership.
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