Blog1 Airports

Well here I am, just arrived in Italy for a week, A surprisingly hassle free journey, Ryanair two-hour flight. Standsted was busy but efficient, no queues at passport control or security. And straight through security in Ancona, with no delay and the bags off in less than 10 minutes!! In Italy!! Not Germany.

So why can’t the larger airports work with the same level of efficiency?

“Ah but you see they have a lot more planes and a multiple of flights and passengers per day, so it is bound to be slower”

Well I just don’t buy that. It is lazy monopolistic management that is the route of the problem; there is no commercial incentive for them to increase their efficiency. They hide behind the volume of passengers argument, and the extra security measures required in these post 911 days.

They treat these as problems that cannot be solved, that are out of their control rather than business challenges that require their attention to find creative solutions. All global businesses have had to adapt the increased global security, expanding into emerging markets where new business models may be required as well as different market strategies. They find solutions to these problems otherwise they lose their customers. With such a stark consequence they apply their attention to the issue. It is clear that the major UK airports simply do not.

We are continually patronized with the “ you can’t compromise on safety”. “ What’s an hour in a queue when lives are at risk” These insult our intelligence, and frankly betray the simpleminded and lazy thinking of management.

How many times have you queued through security to find half a dozen of the x-ray machines not in use? Manned by frustrated prison officers who take a palpable delight in the discomfort of the customers who pay their wages, shouting repetitive instructions that each of us will have heard 25 times by the time we pass through their security.

Client service is a non-existent concept to them; again they are protected by the safety mantra trumping everything else. I imagine (I hope never to find out) that prisoners actually have more rights to complain that us poor users of airports.

And then when you get through there is no where to sit (absent those of you fortunate to gain entry to a lounge, where you move from being treated as a passenger to be processed and extorted with the ludicrous prices to, a human being. These lounges are of course managed and maintained by the airlines, where competition exists for the benefit of the consumer and not the airports)

So there is no seating and yet there is enough free real estate for every fast food franchise on the planet to be present, doubtless defended on the proposition of customer choice being paramount! Well my choice would be a have a seat thank you very much!


I have to grudgingly admire their wonderful PR propaganda. The footfall of the two major UK airports not to mention the generally appalling regional ones must rival that of the combined figure for our major high street retailers. Yet they are allowed to jettison any notion whatsoever of client service and get away with it, without a murmur of compliant from us. Security is sacrosanct, anyone suggesting anything that challenges this is a heretic and quite likely to be put on a no fly list. Certainly voicing any criticism to our “prison warders” will result in you being late and possibly missing your flight.

Our beloved government seeks to apply market forces to the teaching profession, with endless and pointless testing. To the caring profession with waiting times, and out of hour coverage and doubtless numerous other pointless self serving ideas, which actually achieve nothing, but they seek to do it because they believe service levels are important (they are misguided as to how to do it!) but they do at least recognize the importance. Well that is probably being too generous to them, they do it because they know we the people care out these things, and they need to be able to pretend they are doing something about it.

Private companies bidding for rail franchises risk losing their franchise if they don’t run their trains on time. There we go- a perfect example of good state intervention in the private sector where near monopoly conditions apply. With a bit of thought this can easily be made to apply to the Airports.

But no, there is no government appetite, “the public are quite content to be treated worse than farm animals, to be ripped off with usurious prices” Because we have been told and have bought the lie that this is a necessary part of the war on terror.

Commercial businesses exploiting, and being allowed to, the oldest technique in marketing- fear. Outrageous.