With more snow forecast and major airports shutting down for days on end, government ministers are considering fines for airports which close during bad weather.
The idea behind this is that airports such as Heathrow are so important to the infrastructure of the UK and its economy that they can’t afford to be closed for long.
Exactly what will constitute an excessive closure is likely to be debated for quite some time, as there are times such as those shown by Gatwick where as fast as the airports clear the snow, they simply can’t make the runways and side-areas safe. However Gatwick and many other airports did manage to keep going a lot better than Heathrow during the bad weather.
There have been suggestions that this legislation is being aimed more at Spanish owned BAA who operate Heathrow and various other major airports, rather than all airports, especially as they have already been forced to sell at least one of their major airports to remove their stranglehold on the UK airport market.
BAA for its part has already placed orders for £10m worth of extra snow moving equipment for its airport network.
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