bmi says BAA's new passenger charges will damage the UK economy
04-Nov-2010 The chief executive of British Midland International (bmi) has criticised a planned 50% increase in charges by BAA for domestic passengers flying out of London's Heathrow Airport.
This increase comes on the heels of an already announced increase by government in Air Passenger Duty (APD).
Heathrow's owner, BAA, is planning to raise the domestic charge, to be paid for each departing passenger by £7, or over 50%, and bring it in line with the charges paid by passengers departing for any EU country. However, domestic passengers do not use the same BAA facilities as those travellers flying outside of UK borders.
BAA's planned charges, which are being introduced from 1st April 2011, will see the rate increase from £13.43 to £20.25 per passenger, a move that is unacceptable to airlines like bmi at a time when the economy is fragile and inflation is under 4%.
Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, Chief Executive Officer, bmi, said the planned increase in charges is totally unacceptable:
"We are outraged at this BAA plan to increase prices. These planned higher charges are unjustifiable when domestic passengers do not use the same facilities as international passengers. The charging structure from Heathrow is therefore favouring longhaul airlines and neglects the need of local British airlines serving the domestic markets.
"The new charges will not only lead to higher prices for domestic flights but also price travellers onto other forms of transport which, on some routes such as Heathrow-Belfast, is simply not feasible. Comments made by political decision-makers that domestic passengers should use trains can only be labelled as cynical taking into account the over-water journey to and from Belfast and the length of train journeys to and from Scotland.
"We are also deeply concerned that these higher charges will be a major blow to the economies of Scotland and Northern Ireland who heavily depend on air connectivity to and from Heathrow. Higher prices damage economic growth and will cause massive inconvenience to business and leisure travellers.
"As BAA's second biggest customer at Heathrow - bmi carries over 2 million domestic passengers each year - we will be fighting these proposals to ensure British businesses and consumers are aware of BAA's outrageous moves and not forced to pay more."