March 9th - Heathrow passenger charges
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2023
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
I’m in the Taurus mountains of southern Turkey, beside a tranquil reservoir, but the row over how much each passenger at the UK’s busiest airport should pay for the privilege is rumbling.
Heathrow says the average £27.50 per person charge prescribed by the Civil Aviation Authority is not nearly enough to deliver the standards passengers deserve; airlines are furious and say the figure is way above other airports.
The blunt truth is that Heathrow is more popular with passengers – and airlines – than any other airport on the planet, and that without the CAA cap charges would be stratospheric.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Say hello to Mia. |
| 0:01.9 | Hey there. |
| 0:02.7 | Mia runs a pet grooming service by getting new clients was rough. |
| 0:06.3 | Until I started using ACAST. |
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| 0:12.7 | Now people all over the city know about my grooming services. |
| 0:16.1 | Mia's business is looking sharp. |
| 0:18.1 | What's your secret for happy pets and happy clients? |
| 0:21.1 | A fresh cut, a friendly vibe and a well-placed podcast ad. |
| 0:24.2 | Get the word out about your business through ACAST. |
| 0:27.3 | Visit go.acast.com slash advertise to get started. |
| 0:35.8 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. |
| 0:41.2 | Yes, bright and early. |
| 0:43.0 | I'm actually beside a reservoir known as Akupre in southern Turkey. |
| 0:48.9 | But I'm talking to you about charges at Heathrow because like millions of other people I fly in and out of that |
| 0:57.7 | airport it takes you to some wonderful places and there's a bit of a Barney about the Heathrow price |
| 1:04.9 | cap so I thought I should just explain what's going on here as far as I can see. |
| 1:11.4 | Heathrow is far more popular than any other airport in Europe, arguably in the world. |
| 1:21.0 | Certainly it is the busiest two-runway airport, even after COVID, which saw it disappear temporarily out of the top 10 of |
| 1:29.6 | airports. In Europe, it is now firmly back. And that means that if the market were able |
| 1:38.4 | just to work normally, then the airport could charge an absolute fortune for every passenger who passes through. |
| 1:48.9 | Now, generally, airport charges are maybe £10, £15 per passenger. |
... |
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