Heathrow
Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports, serving over 180 destinations in more than 90 countries.
How did we perform?
Last year, 67.3 million passengers passed through the airport, down 0.2%. Financially, the airport performed well during 2006 with underlying revenues of £869 million and an underlying operating profit of £330 million. However, in terms of passenger satisfaction, it was a year of tough challenges for Heathrow. The August security alerts, coupled with disruptions caused by December’s bad weather, led to a slight drop in annual passenger satisfaction scores from 4.0 to 3.9 (5 = excellent; 1 = poor). Heathrow recruited over 500 new security guards and invested in new equipment to cope with heightened security issues which has started to improve the situation. But we’re aware that there’s still a way to go to give passengers the experience they want.
How will expansion help things?
The year’s major expansion story has been the continued construction of Terminal 5, which will set the benchmark for BAA’s passenger experience delivery. In the past year, one of the biggest baggage systems in the world was completed (with capacity to process around 12,000 bags an hour at peak), a local area network was installed with over 500,000 kilometres of cabling, and the transport infrastructure is now largely in place. When it opens in March 2008, Terminal 5 will allow BAA to make big strides in its aim to deliver a first class passenger experience for all its passengers all of the time. The challenge ahead is how to elevate the rest of the airport to this level. Significant developments, including the refurbishment of the Central Bus Station and Terminal 3’s landside area are certainly a step in the right direction, offering more comfortable environments.
Our plans for a new state-of-the-art terminal to replace Terminal 2 and the Queen’s Building, two of our oldest facilities, would also accelerate our plans to make more efficient use of the eastern end of the airfield apron, both in terms of the airfield and the passenger experience.
