Heathrow Unpopular With Airport Passengers
London's Heathrow Airport is unpopular with airport passengers, according to an international survey of air travellers.
The UK's busiest flight hub ranked 103rd out of 162 airports around the world in a questionnaire polled by Skytrax, an airport and air transport consulting and research group.
The annual World Airports Customer Satisfaction Survey, which was this year answered by 7.8 million international air passengers, asks respondents to answer questions about their experiences of facilities and customer service at airports.
Heathrow's ranking in the questionnaire represents a fall of 58 places on its performance in the same survey in 2007. Last year the airport was ranked 45th.
The top-ranking airport in the survey was Hong Kong International Airport.
Heathrow Airport Security Queues
Heathrow's poor performance in the survey mainly centred on the airport's security queues, baggage system delays and difficulty in making connections.
Where baggage collection delays were concerned, the airport's rank comes in just above that of Caracas Airport in Venezuela.
Heathrow actually came out as the eighth-worst airport in the world for baggage delays in the survey.
Although placed 103rd overall, on certain questions in the survey, the airport actually performed even worse.
It ranked 105th for bathroom cleanliness and 116th for general cleanliness.
Most notably, it ranked 154th out of 162 for the ease of making international connections - a ranking only just above that of Bombay Airport, India.
Another low score was recorded for the helpfulness of immigration and customs officials.
The highest score recorded by Heathrow was for its duty-free shops, for which it got 42nd place. Passengers also gave top-half finishes for the airport's restaurants and cafes (rank of 72nd) and, despite the figure recorded for customs officers, the overall friendliness of its staff (rank of 79th).
Heathrow Terminal 5 Passenger Facilities
The British Airports Authority (BAA), which operates Heathrow, is banking on passenger facilities at the airport's new Terminal 5 to help improve Heathrow's poor reputation among passengers and, indeed, among
The flagship new terminal, which begins operations on Thursday 27th March, is home to a number of retail, shopping and food facilities which BAA believe will help mark T5 out to international air passengers.
These include branches of Harrods and Tiffany & Co., and a dedicated 'food hall' including a restaurant called 'Plane Food' (part of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's empire) and a cocktail bar.
Source - Airport International's London Reporter
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