"UK transport secretary calls Heathrow security summit"

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Kelly calls Heathrow security summit
By Kevin Done
United Kingdom - The Financial Times


Ruth Kelly, UK transport secretary, is calling a “security summit” of key
airlines, airports and government officials later this month amid growing
concern that the travel chaos of recent summers, in particular at Heathrow
airport, could be repeated in coming weeks, as the peak summer travel season
gets under way.

The announcement of the summit came as Unite, the largest civil aviation
union, warned that British Airways operations at Heathrow were being hit by
a shortage of staff. Brendan Gold, the union’s national secretary for civil
aviation, said there had been “a failure of leadership by BA to the point of
incompetence.”

The airline is already struggling to deal with a mountain of misplaced bags
at Heathrow, its global hub, that has built up in the last two weeks as a
result of security alerts, including a suspected bomb, which forced the
closure of Terminal 4 for several hours on Tuesday, the terrorist attack at
Glasgow airport at the weekend and the impact of the recent severe weather,
which have caused more than 100 flight cancellations.

Mr Gold was called to emergency talks at BA on Thursday.

He said that the union had warned the airline’s management that staffing
pressures due to job cuts and the demands for training for BA’s move next
year to the new Terminal 5 were “increasing and show no sign of letting up.”

He said that BA ground staff were “doing huge amounts of overtime and people
are being drafted in from other parts of the business to help move baggage,
but that’s not a sustainable position.”

BA was “not acting on the very clear warnings we have given over many
months. You have to wonder if Willie Walsh [BA chief executive] is being
given the true picture by his managers,” said Mr Gold.

Mr Walsh said on Thursday that Heathrow operations had been “very difficult
in recent weeks.”

He said, “the airport is running at nearly double its intended capacity and
this has been made worse by extreme weather and security issues.” Staff had
been “working around the clock” to clear the backlog of bags.

BA was forced to cancel 108 flights on Tuesday to and from Heathrow because
of the temporary closure of Terminal Four.

It refused to disclose how many misplaced bags it was seeking to clear, but
one airport official said it was around 20,000.

Airlines connecting with BA services at Heathrow are expressing increasing
concern about the impact of the baggage problems on their own transfer
passengers.

“There is massive under-manning. BA does not have the personnel to go
through the mountain of bags, identify the labels, and pass them on to other
airlines. As the problems build up they get further and further behind,”
said an executive from one leading partner airline.

“Bags go into a black hole and do not join transfer passengers making their
onward flights. And this is happening before the summer peak.” 

Ms Kelly warned on Thursday that aviation remained “an iconic target for
international terrorists.

She said “this threat will persist. That means heightened security measures
at airports since last year remain necessary and are likely to be so for the
foreseeable future.”

The security summit was being called to ensure that all possible measures
were being taken by airlines and airports to prepare for the peak summer
travel season. The transport department is about to launch a £1.5m
advertising campaign to explain the security measures that have been
introduced since August last year including limits on carry-on baggage and
liquids. 

“The key to keeping our airports moving in the coming weeks and months is to
prepare passengers on what to expect, and to keep them informed as they
travel,” said Ms Kelly.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************