Heathrow faces massive Lufthansa compensation claim

BAA, London Heathrow Airport’s privately-owned operator, may now face a major, multimillion pound compensation claim launched by Germany’s flag carrier, Lufthansa. The German legacy airline is frustrated by the fact that its planned move from Heathrow’s Terminal 1 has been delayed, due in part to the series of problems that surrounded the start of operations at the recently opened Terminal 5. As we reported earlier this year, British Airways has delayed the move of its final flights from the older terminals—specifically T-4– to the new hub, in order to avoid the chaos that characterized T-5 in late March and early April. Yet the longer it takes for BA to move from T-1 and T-4, the more Lufthansa will have to wait. Additionally, BAA plans to spend billions of pounds modernizing Heathrow’s older terminals, but it is unclear as to when this work will actually be completed.

Lufthansa has publicly referred to the newly announced 12 month delay as “unacceptable” and journalists have also been informed that the carrier would seek £200,000 per month in compensation, for however long its takes BAA to allow the airline to transfer its operations to T-1. This means that BAA could very well end up paying out around £2 million.

The original BAA plan had been to concentrate all carriers that are members of the Star Alliance at T-1, including Lufthansa, which is the group’s most prominent member. Karsten Benz, who serves as Lufthansa’s vice president in charge of European operations, told journalists that the main problem with BAA and Heathrow is that there is too much of an emphasis on retail and commercial space, while little attention is placed on essential passenger services. “The airport focuses on retail and not on the airlines. When you go through immigration, you have to find your way through perfume and cigarettes to find your boarding gate,” Benz explained.

www.lufthansa.com