Heathrow boss blames airlines for travel chaos

As airport caps passenger numbers, its chairman says carriers are to blame for baggage handler shortage

The chairman of Heathrow has launched a searing attack on “slasher” airlines for failing to attract enough baggage handlers at the airport after refusing to pay higher wages. Lord Deighton has leapt to the defence of John Holland-kaye, the under-fire Heathrow chief executive, by blaming airlines for travel chaos. Writing in The

Daily Telegraph, Lord Deighton says: “If [airlines] aren’t willing to pay market rates, then they aren’t able to fill the posts.”

THE chairman of Heathrow has launched an attack on “slasher” airlines he said failed to attract baggage handlers at the airport because they refused to raise wages.

Lord Deighton leapt to the defence of John Holland-kaye, the airport’s chief executive, by laying the blame on airlines for the travel chaos at Heathrow and other airports this year.

Mr Holland-kaye has come under pressure in recent days, as the Government issued him with an ultimatum to assure them the airport is appropriately staffed. This was followed by disclosures in this newspaper that Mr Holland-kaye had dismissed as “simply not credible” carriers’ warnings at the end of last year that the airport was unprepared for a glut of summer holiday bookings.

But writing in The Daily Telegraph, Lord Deighton, a former Treasury official, investment banker and chief executive of the London Olympic Organisation Committee, lays the blame at the feet of airlines.

He says: “Ground handling is a highly competitive, labour intensive, low margin business, characterised by short term contracts. Airlines have driven down costs over the years, and this was one of the first costs they slashed during the pandemic. For months ground handling companies have been trying to recruit and train skilled workers, but if their airline customers aren’t willing to pay market rates, then they aren’t able to fill the posts.”

Willie Walsh, the former British Airways chief executive who is now head of airlines group IATA, is one of a growing number of executives to have criticised Heathrow over its lack of preparation in recent days. He said that Mr Holland-kaye should be fired if the chaos continues into next year.

Lord Deighton, however, turned on Mr Walsh, accusing BA bosses of overseeing “decade of slashing” before “being refashioned as a service organisation by its new team”.

Heathrow last week capped the number of passengers able to fly from the airport this summer to 100,000 a day, forcing some airlines to a cancel flights.

Lord Deighton said: “For months we have been asking airlines to keep their ground handling resource in balance with demand. In the last few weeks, we have seen a shocking increase in planes departing without bags and passengers having their flights cancelled after they were already on board. That’s why we stepped in and implemented

‘Airlines have driven down costs over the years and this is one of the first costs they slashed during pandemic’

a cap on departing passengers – just like Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Gatwick and many other airports.

“This is the time when we should be investing to rebuild capacity as fast as possible so that we can give passengers the easy, quick and reliable journeys they deserve and are paying for. We need to be encouraging investors, not slashers, to make every passenger journey better so that we can rebuild the UK’S aviation sector.”

Heathrow said last week it had no choice but to introduce a flight cap that will be in place until Sept 11.

Mr Holland-kaye said: “By making this intervention, our objective is to protect flights for the vast majority of passengers at Heathrow this summer and to give confidence that everyone who does travel through the airport will have a safe journey and arrive at their destination with their bags.”

There is concern that “airport chaos” will ruin summer holidays after over two years of Covid cancellations. We want everyone travelling this summer to be confident they will get away on holiday, with their bags. That is why we have taken action to cap departing passenger numbers at the level that airlines, their ground handlers and the airport can serve. We understand this may be difficult for some passengers and airlines, but it is absolutely not down to a lack of planning or investment by the airport.

The core problem is the lack of airline ground handlers across Europe.

Anyone who has flown recently will know aviation is struggling at times to cope. Scenes of queues, lost bags and cancelled flights are playing out at airports around the world. Most people understand why. A wave of pent-up passenger demand this summer has surged past the capabilities of the sector to serve them. Everyone is working hard to get back to normal, but the travel industry is still grappling with the legacy of what we had to do to survive during two years with no revenue.

The idea that Heathrow, or the UK, is a disaster zone while the rest of the world cracks on is ludicrous. The vast, vast majority of passengers have had a very good and quick journey through Heathrow since travel restarted only four months ago. The fact that Heathrow’s 100,000 departing passenger cap is 50pc higher than that in place at Schiphol, our nearest rival, shows how much better we have planned than our competitors.

We started recruiting back in November. We will soon have the same security capacity as before Covid. Some passengers may wait longer than the five minutes they are used to, but that is because our new recruits are rightly focused on keeping everyone safe, and will take a bit longer to do a security search than their more experienced colleagues. They get faster with each passing week. Any queues are well organised and kept moving. We have extra service colleagues to support passengers in the terminals.

Heathrow is a great airport. Passengers rank it as one of the best in the world. Private investment by British and international investors over the last decade has transformed Heathrow from the “hassle” days of the early 2000s into one where consistent, reliable journeys are the norm – and taxpayers haven’t paid anything for it.

The UK benefits from having a world-class hub airport, with great airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and British Airways – the latter being refashioned as a service organisation by its new team after a decade of “slashing” under previous leadership. When things go wrong, passengers don’t want a blame game, they want someone to stand up and make sure that they will get away on holiday with their bags. That’s why the Department for Transport asked Heathrow to take a lead. As the airport operator, with 85 airline customers and their eight ground handlers, we are the only ones with a complete view of the airport ecosystem. It is clear the key constraint on growth in aviation capacity is the lack of ground handlers. These are highly skilled people who manage most jobs at the airport – check-in, loading and unloading bags, bringing planes on to and off stand – but they don’t work for the airport itself, they are independent businesses contracted to airlines.

It is a highly competitive, labour intensive, low margin business, characterised by short-term contracts. Airlines have driven down costs over the years, and this was one of the first costs they slashed during the pandemic. Across Europe, over 50pc of ground handlers left the industry. Many with driving skills, such as those who take bags to and from the plane, were snapped up as delivery drivers.

For months ground handling companies tried to recruit and train skilled workers, but if their airline customers won’t pay market rates, then they aren’t able to fill the posts.

Heathrow is proud to be a London living wage employer and we have had no difficulty attracting talented people to work in security. Airlines have not secured any net increase in ground handling resource at Heathrow since January, making it the constraint as demand grows. Anyone on board an arriving flight who has had to wait for an airbridge, or had their bags only arrive in the reclaim hall two hours late, or been delayed boarding because a cleaning crew hadn’t yet arrived, will know exactly what I’m talking about. It is certainly not for lack of effort. Everyone is working very hard.

For months we asked airlines to keep their ground handling resource in balance with demand. In the last few weeks, we have seen a shocking increase in planes departing without bags and passengers having flights cancelled after they were already on board. That’s why we stepped in and implemented a cap – just like Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Gatwick and many other airports. We moved quickly to protect the peak summer getaway. Nobody wants to make the difficult decision to tell some passengers they won’t travel, but it is better this happens when they can make other choices than when they are already on the plane.

As airline ground handlers increase, we will be able to raise the cap. We are grateful our airline customers have recognised the need to take action, and are now working with us to make sure capacity and demand are in balance.

Now is when we should be investing to rebuild capacity as fast as possible so we can give passengers the easy, quick and reliable journeys they deserve and are paying for. We need to encourage investors, not slashers, to make every passenger journey better so that we can rebuild the UK’S aviation sector, maintain our world-class hub airport and connect Britain to global growth.

‘The idea that Heathrow, or the UK, is a disaster zone while the rest of the world cracks on is ludicrous’