Virgin Atlantic Refuses To Pay London Airport Fees In Snow Dispute

LONDON — Virgin Atlantic Airways said Monday that it won't pay fees to the owner of Heathrow airport because of what it sees as a slow reaction to heavy snow last month.

Airport owner BAA Ltd. says the airline has no right to withhold payments.

Heavy snow grounded aircraft at Europe's busiest airport on Dec. 18, and Heathrow's second runway was out of action until Dec. 21. Hundreds of flights were canceled and travelers were stranded for days.

BAA has commissioned an independent investigation of the problems, which is expected to be completed in March.

"We have written to BAA this weekend to advise them that we are withholding our fees from the airport operator until its inquiry into the snow enforced runway closures in December is completed," a Virgin Atlantic statement said.

"Despite the airport operating conditions being way beyond our control, Virgin Atlantic is taking responsibility by paying out millions to customers that suffered disruption to their Christmas travel plans. We are keen that BAA also feels a strong sense of accountability to the consumer and that minds are focused on delivering a fully independent and robust inquiry by its deadline in March."

BAA responded: "Heathrow's conditions of use do not provide any basis for Virgin Atlantic or any other airline to withhold airport charges."

Steve Ridgway, Virgin's chief executive, told the Financial Times that the investigation should determine what was a reasonable time for clearing away the snow. Ridgway said the airline will be seeking compensation for the interruption of its operations beyond that time.

Comments

[Ricardo Valentin]

08:32 PM on 01/10/2011

The headline blurb for this article in the main page is sure misleading!!! Now I look and its an article about an airline! I was almost wrote a long winded vaguely worded oddly frantic post about an unrelated topic but decided to relent due to fact that this is not Yahoo where lunacy is a fine and much admired art.

[KIVPossum]

12:07 PM on 01/10/2011

If Virgin wants to withhold payment until the inquiry is complete, seems the fair solution is for Heathrow to put them in a holding pattern until the report is out. Says the investigation will be finished by March.

[NorthWoodsVoice]

12:49 PM on 01/10/2011

...because destroying your customers is always a smart business practice. Doh!

[KIVPossum]

02:10 PM on 01/10/2011

Non-paying customers are rarely profitable, and it seems Heathrow has plenty of business. Think they can live without the Virgin

[ExPatChris]

11:13 AM on 01/10/2011

After narrowly avoiding being one of the many people stranded trying to fly back for my family Christmas visit, I can't blame Virgin for not wanting to pay. It's almost criminal that BAA let the snow be such a hinderance, when the other London airports were up and running after only a brief shutdown. BAA refused the help of the British Army, who volunteered to help move the snow.

It became clear that the issues with the airport were down to the bad management of BAA, and not simply because there were a few inches of snow on the ground.

Compare that to my flight home from Philadelphia. The snow stopped at 7am the day I flew, and despite getting 9 inches in the storm, Philadelphia was completely open by the time I got there at 6pm for my flight.