The head of IATA is pretty clear what he thinks, and isn’t pulling his punches:

“A particular focus will be the UK, where unique screening policies inconvenience passengers with no improvement in security. The only beneficiary is the airport operator BAA that continues to deliver embarrassingly low service levels by failing to invest in appropriate equipment and staff to meet demand. This must stop.�

He seems pretty clear that BAA aren’t interested in delivering a good service, and are more interested in making money. Certainly after the second baggage backlog in under a year, following on from the almost identical problem back in January (and BBC Online has even used the same picture…) it’s not surprising that increasing numbers of people are calling Heathrow an embarrassment. My impression when going through the airport over recent years is that all the money has gone into shops and retail space, stuff that makes money for BAA…

Some are saying that people should vote with their feet, but having said that, what are the other options? Gatwick? It’s also owned by BAA, and is also at capacity – the simple answer is that aside from short haul options, where a number of the regional airports are picking up passengers for most people there is not much option than to use Heathrow.