Airports: Heathrow

Baroness Kramer Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the noble Lord will understand that we cannot arrange for every flight coming into Europe to land at Heathrow.

[Baroness Kramer]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware of the recent report by Airport Watch, which demonstrates that Heathrow and London dwarf every European rival in number of flights to the world’s main business destinations. Therefore, would he agree that in order to keep its place, Heathrow should focus on how it treats its passengers and perhaps the UK Border Agency could change its policy so that people with non-UK passports can get through in less than one and a half hours, which was true at terminal 3 two weeks ago?

[Earl Attlee]

My noble friend makes extremely important points which were all picked up by the South East Airports Taskforce. She mentioned the UK Border Agency. We are aware of scope for improvement and UKBA is working on that. She will also be aware of other things that will be happening as a result of the South East Airports Taskforce’s work, which will improve the experience for passengers.