Lufthansa is seeking compensation from airport operator BAA over its delayed move across Heathrow Airport to Terminal 1.

In anticipation of the forthcoming Heathrow East development, BAA is reconfiguring where airlines operate from around the airport.

Under the plans, the terminal airlines operate from will be dependent on the alliance to which they belong.

As a member of the Star Alliance, Lufthansa will be moving its operations to Terminal 1 alongside its alliance partners, including bmi British Midland, Singapore Airlines and United.

The move to Terminal 1 was planned for November this year. However, the move will now not take place until spring 2009 at the earliest.

Karsten Benz, Lufthansa's vice-president for Europe, confirmed: "We have been officially told we will be moving to Terminal 1 in November but we know that it will now not be until next year".

Heathrow Airline Terminal Changes

Lufthansa bosses are said to be outraged at the delay, which they describe as "unacceptable".
Benz said: "We ask, as the third largest carrier at Heathrow, that we need more precise information from BAA. Instead we are kept in the dark".

He added: "The delay is unacceptable for us and has a major impact. Our customers do not feel a quality experience when they are at Heathrow".

"We see BAA is concentrating now on Terminal 5 which is state-of-the-art, but the other terminals are from the old days. We are not fine with this status".

Benz said Lufthansa would seek compensation from BAA to the tune of £200,000 for each month the airline is delayed.

Heathrow East

BAA would not comment on the issue, but a spokesman for the company said the operator was "in close consultation with our airlines...to make the process [of terminal moves] as smooth as possible".

The plans call for Star Alliance airlines to be at Terminal 1. Terminal 3 will host the members of the Oneworld alliance (including Cathay Pacific), while Terminal 4 will be reserved for the SkyTeam airlines (including Air France-KLM).

The terminal moves are set to continue until the end of 2009.

The Heathrow East project is the next flagship development at Heathrow. Replacing Terminal 2 and The Queen's Building, BAA want to have the new facility operational for the London Olympic Games in 2012.

Source - Airport International's London Reporter

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