Heathrow airport languishes below Kolkata airport
London: Kolkata airport surpasses
London's Heathrow airport which languishes in 99th place in a
confidential international table that informs the aviation
industry about passenger opinions, a media report said on Wednesday.
According to The Times, Britain's main gateway, which
operates at the brink of its capacity, is way down in the
rankings of the world's 146 principal airports, with
passengers bemoaning long security queues and poor "ambience".
Kolkata is 95th in the list while Frankfurt is 126
and Paris Charles de Gaulle is 137th.
According to the report, it takes 40 per cent longer
to fly from Heathrow to Paris, despite more than 30 years of
advances in aviation.
The journey time - measured from departure gate to
arrival gate - has increased from 57 minutes in 1979 to
between 70 and 80 minutes last year, suggesting that
congestion is needlessly delaying flights.
Singapore Changi airport is the best airport in the
world followed by Incheon Seoul, Hong Kong International and
AI Ain, UAE.
Beijing Capital International is the fifth followed
by Pu Deng Shanghai, Gimpo Int, Seoul, Jackson Mississippi
Humberside and Kuala Lumpur International.
"Heathrow has made significant progress over the past
year improving our performance, particularly compared to other
European hub airports," a spokesman for BAA said.
"We are pleased with progress made on improving
courtesy, service and reducing queue times across the airport"
"Clearly there is more that we can do and that is
why we are investing 1 billion pound a year in the airport's
infrastructure," he said.
The status of New Delhi airport, considered one of
the finest in the world, is not mentioned in the report.
PTI