Snow Joke for BAA
Virgin Atlantic Airways have said they withhold a portion of landing and parking fees from BAA because of the airport operator ’s handling of the snow fall at London Heathrow in the run up to Christmas.
The charges due will be placed in a separate account until the results of an external independent inquiry are published. The amount withheld represents “less than half of our estimated costs and losses,” according to the airline.
In a letter to BAA, Virgin argued that the “handling of the snow event fell well short of what is expected of an international airport operator.” It said BAA failed to have “proper contingency arrangements in place, including insufficient capacity of equipment, staff and quantity of available materials,” failed to “communicate adequate information to the airlines” and failed to “have adequate assets to open up the second runway without delay.”
BAA CEO Colin Matthews on the 11th January responded in a public comment in The Times newspaper, saying that Virgin withholding airport charges is “disappointing” and “without legal basis.”
Both parties now have gone temporarily quiet presumably to plan their next move.
The problem of course for BAA is apparent. If they are to give in to the claim they set not only the precedent that they will pay this claim, but open themselves up to future claims (they gave in before) and also the other airlines will come knocking, adding to the £21 million they lost in any case due to the inclement weather.
For Virgin they have painted themselves into a difficult position to come back from. Something they have done before in the Virgin Media fall out with BSkyB some 2 years ago (interestingly, they lost that battle).
For Virgin to go so public with the demand may create an environment that makes a negotiated settlement more, not less,