The decision by BAA to sell Edinburgh Airport instead of Glasgow might seem surprising to some. After all, Edinburgh has more passengers, is based in Scotland’s capital and had money invested last year to spruce up the departure lounges.

Roll up, roll up, I‘ve got Easter bargains galore. You want an airport? I’ve got just the one for you. Big ones, little ones. Ones at home or in the sunshine. Let’s do a deal while prices are low.

On Wednesday evening in Copenhagen, Skytrax announced the winners of their airport awards. Never heard of them? Skytrax polls travellers across the world for their thoughts across 39 different categories. These surveys are always completed after the trip so that people can think for a day or two after the event so that a considered opinion can be given. And 11.38 million people from 105 different nationalities gave just that considered opinion.

The airport of the year was Hong Kong International Airport which, if you have ever used it, would be a popular choice

This morning the Competition Commission has ruled that BAA must sell off Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh Airports. This follows from the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the sale despite the attempts of BAA to say that the travel market had changed quite a bit since the original ruling was given. What will BAA do now? Sell and give in gracefully or try and find justification for continuing its fight?

This morning BAA announced its financial results for 2010. It made a loss but the chief executive calls this “robust” and confidently expects to present a “strong increase in profits” this year.
Now let’s get down to the important stuff. How is BAA going to treat its passengers in the future?

It’s one of those things that come to the fore when times are tougher. If there is little to differentiate one company from another when prices are similar then it is how the customer is treated that can make the difference. So the claim by Cityjet, which flies to regional and European destinations from London City, to give passengers free flights if they are not happy with the service provided by the airline is welcome news.
It is only for a trial period but it demonstrates that the management of the airline must be pretty confident about their treatment of passengers.

There has been a flurry of information released that supposedly tells us what we did during the summer. Did we holiday at home or did we go abroad and does it matter to us as the people who went anyway. The only reason we are interested in this sort of news is because of that self-satisfying feel you get in knowing whether you have done something different or whether you have been where others have gone.

After talks today, Unite, the union involved has withdrawn its proposed strike action at the airports of BAA. Heathrow, Stanstead, Southampton, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports could have been affected by the strike which was likely to have taken place later this month.
A new pay offer has been recommended by the union and voting will take place over the next 3 weeks. If rejected by members the earliest a strike could now take place would be in September.

With decent weather over much of our countries last weekend it looked as though things were set fare for a while. In the space of one week, we have had winds and heavy rain and then, to top it off, Goldtrail Holidays (which also used the name Sunmar) went bust yesterday evening leaving 16,000 abroad. Now it also seems that there may be a strike at all BAA airports (Heathrow, Stanstead, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen) during August.
CD-Traveller has frequently argued for wider consumer protection. In the wake of Globespan in 2009 and XL in 2008 (see CD-Traveller 14 Sept, 26 Nov, 17 Dec 2009), you might have hoped or expected that such high profile events might have stimulated some change. No, the EU prepared a document and sent it for consultation. The then government said it was an EU issue and we are no further forward. Yet we have had 11 cases of companies going bust this year.

Returning to an old hobby horse of mine, I had to change terminals at Heathrow so I caught the Heathrow Connect service to get me from terminals 4 to 3. In the old days before terminal 5, you caught the Heathrow Express service which linked the terminals at no cost to you. (You pay only if you went on in to Paddington) Now the Heathrow Express doesn’t stop at 4 only the stop for 1 and 3 and then 5. (For those of you who weren’t aware terminal 2 doesn’t exist as BAA rebuilds it)

In a view that surprised nearly everyone, probably including BAA themselves, there has been a ruling that BAA may not have to sell of one of their Scottish airports (Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow) nor dispose of Stansted. BAA appealed against the decision of the Competition Commission and the Competition Appeal Tribunal has agreed with BAA.

Why?

Because of a technicality.

Some people were trapped on Eurostar trains for 12 hours and claim they were told nothing. It has been said that one driver even locked himself in his engine cab. Allbury Travel went into liquidation yesterday (they own Libra and Argos Holidays) and passengers claim they were kept in the dark. On Thursday when flyGlobespan went into liquidation I was at Glasgow Airport and there was no information at their desk in the airport. When there was the terminal 5 debacle earlier this year, one major complaint was the delay of both British Airways and BAA to come and talk to passengers.
What is clear in that each of these cases information was not given to the passengers quickly enough for them to feel that that they were kept up to date.

From today Gatwick is no longer run by BAA. Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the owners of London City Airport, take over the running of the airport so what might be expected? In the short term, probably only cosmetic changes like signage, uniforms and names will alter. But what should happen in the longer term?

A problem with the old owners was that, by owning so many airports around London, competition was stifled so the first thing I should like to see is a wider net of destinations. Bring back more North American and Asia Pacific flights so there will be a true alternative to Heathrow and don’t let Gatwick drift into just being an airport for charter holiday flights and no-frills airlines.

You will probably all be aware by now that Gatwick has been sold by the owners BAA to the owners of London City Airport, Global Infrastructure Partners. GIP paid about £1.5 billion which in normal times would be a bit of a bargain. Since it was virtually an enforced sale I suppose the other bidders, who included Manchester Airport Group, offered even less

BAA has decided that it isn’t going to give up any of it’s airports without a fight. It seems that they have decided to waste more of their money pursuing this idea despite the fact that, to just about everyone else, it seems like a good idea to stimulate a bit of competition. Could it [...]

On this, the 105th anniversay of the first manned flight by the Wright Brothers, the Competition Commssion (CC), has issued a report (over 107 pages plus appendices) saying these three airports should be sold;- maybe.Why maybe?Because this isn’t the final report. That is due next February/March so I suppose the CC could change its recommendations. [...]

Cast you minds back. To 6 months ago. When Heathrow’s Terminal 5 opened and there were all those problems. Seems a long time ago since then we have reported that. Like all new openings, there were teething problems and those may have been worse than elsewhere or may have been overblown by the media. Now [...]