Flying leap (of logic)

The airport we all love to hate, London Heathrow, comes in for another pasting in the press today, with a "confidential" report revealing that airline passengers rate it only 99th best in the world. The Times actually deemed this so important that it made the story its front page lead, but as The Times electronic content is behind the Great Paywall of Murdoch, here is a link to the story in the Telegraph.

I've passed through a lot of airports over the years (probably around a hundred) and yield to none in my dislike for the LHR experience. Still, I can't help thinking that this survey is a bit unfair on Heathrow; and if the idea is to force the government to revive the idea of a third runway there, which it probably is, then it might well be counterproductive.

Let's look at the unfairness of the survey first. It will surprise no-one to learn that Asian airports dominate the top positions: Singapore Changi first, Seoul Incheon second, Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok third. (It would have been interesting to know where the old Kai Tak might have figured, especially with nervous flyers!) Some of the others in the top ten, however, raise a few eyebrows: El Ain in the UAE, Jackson (Miss.) in the US, Humberside in the UK. They may all provide a wonderful travel experience, but those three probably handle fewer flights in a year than Heathrow does in a week, so they're hardly an appropriate comparator group.

In fact, if we look at airports that might be regarded as Heathrow's peers, a rather surprising picture emerges. Frankfurt? Comes in 127th in the survey. Paris CDG is 134th (out of 136!). Even the sainted Amsterdam Schiphol, supposedly the gold standard for European airports, barely edges ahead of Heathrow, ranking 93rd*. According to proponents of a third runway at Heathrow, each of those airports has invested in new runways and/or terminals and is just about to oust Heathrow as Europe's main long-distance hub. Evidently, if this survey is anything to go by, that won't add anything to the sum of travellers' happiness, so the threat is unlikely to have Heathrow's owner, BAA, quaking in its flying boots.

In these days of tight security and "cheap" fares, flying is never going to be a whole lot of fun. Business people just have to live with it week in and week out; leisure travellers can pick and choose so as to avoid the worst airports at the busiest times. Not that there's much relief for Londoners, though: both Gatwick and Stansted rated below Heathrow in the survey. Anyone know how far is it to Humberside?

* One possible reason: the newest runway at Schiphol is so far from the terminal that the time spent taxiing after landing is almost aa long as the time spent in the air on a flight from London.