Heathrow to pay GBP500,000 penalty for queues
Heathrow Airport has been ordered to pay a £500,000 penalty to airlines after an investigation revealed passenger queuing times at security checkpoints were longer than the airport previously reported.
Both Heathrow and Gatwick have agreed to tighten up their queue monitoring procedures following the checks by the Civil Aviation Authority.
The CAA said an independent audit at Heathrow's Terminal 5 revealed that 'the queue profile visibly differed between when the auditors were present and the profile in previous months'.
It said that in the audited month, July 2011, a higher proportion of passengers queued for longer than five minutes than in previous months.
This resulted in Heathrow making a penalty payment of £500,000 to the airlines, the first for security queues since December 2010.
At Gatwick’s North Terminal, the audit reported that there were occasions when the measured passengers were expedited through security queues and again that the queue profile differed between the audited month (July 2011) and previous months.
CAA Director of Regulatory Policy Iain Osborne said: “The CAA is ensuring that the UK’s two largest airports’ measurement of their security queue performance is of the highest possible standard. We welcome the airports’ agreement to the steps we consider necessary in light of the audit to ensure the data is beyond reproach. This will reinforce the confidence the travelling public can have in these measures, expressly designed to improve the passenger experience.”
The CAA has agreed with the two airports that they will as soon as possible:
• separate the management function of queues from the measurement of queue times;
• agree the terms of reference for their new queue measurement contracts with the CAA and consult with the airline community.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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