February 10th - Heathrow airlines and hotels deplore "vast overcharging and declining service"
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In an unprecedented and coordinated attack, the airlines that use Heathrow airport – as well a prominent hotelier – are demanding lower charges and higher standards.
Virgin Atlantic, British Airways’ parent IAG, the Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee (AOC) and the Arora hotel group say the current way that charges are set by the Civil Aviation Authority are not fit for purpose.
Heathrow says it wants a better long-term arrangement, but that expansion – in the form of a third runway – must be paid for.
This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. It's Monday the 10th of February and I'm in the world's noisiest airport lounge. |
| 0:10.6 | Actually Adelaide, Australia where they seem to be clearing up very, very noisily. I will try to continue despite the din behind me because there is a massive punch-up going on at |
| 0:24.4 | Heathrow figuratively speaking here's what happened this is just overnight so it's broken on |
| 0:31.1 | Monday morning Heathrow's key customers that's not you and I it's the airlines and the |
| 0:36.7 | hotels want lower charges and |
| 0:39.3 | higher standards at the UK's busiest airport. So they have come up with a campaign called Heathrow |
| 0:47.1 | reimagined. And they are Virgin Atlantic, British Airways parent company, IAG, and something which he may not have heard of called the Heathrow Airline Operators Committee. |
| 1:00.4 | This basically represents all the airlines who fly in and out of Heathrow. |
| 1:06.0 | Also, the Aurora Hotel Group has joined in and this is frankly an unprecedented, coordinated attack on the way that charges are made at Heathrow. |
| 1:18.4 | Just to give you some idea of what happens. |
| 1:21.1 | It's really odd. |
| 1:22.1 | The charges are not set by the market, as they would be at a lot of airports, because, well, if they were, they would be |
| 1:29.7 | absolutely through the roof. They're calibrated by the Civil Aviation Authority, according to the |
| 1:35.7 | regulated asset base of Heathrow. That's the last time I'll say that, technical term, basically, |
| 1:42.2 | the value of the airport facilities. And if you invest more in |
| 1:47.1 | new facilities, then the amount that you can charge increases. Imagine, they want a fundamental |
| 1:54.2 | review into the way that Heathrow is regulated for the benefit of consumers, businesses and the UK economy. Yes, they want to be |
| 2:03.8 | paying less and charging their passengers less. Shy Vice, the chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, |
| 2:11.1 | said Heathrow is failing consumers, airlines and the UK economy with ageing facilities and a declining customer experience. |
| 2:21.3 | The chief executive of Heathrow AOC, that's Nigel Wicke, said the airline community wants to offer. |
| 2:29.1 | Travelers to them from the UK, a great experience through Heathrow and we want growth, but also we want to |
| 2:36.0 | avoid the disproportionate costs we too often see by Heathrow Airport Limited and that's |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Independent, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Independent and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.