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By Will 2 years ago, at the end of March Add your comment below
The opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 must surely rank as Britain’s most calamitous PR cock-up since the Millennium Dome debacle nine years ago. There are now 15,000 (or 20,000 if you believe some reports) bags waiting to be delivered to disillusioned passengers here and abroad. What lovely holidays they must all be having.
But fear not, because BA will reimburse those who are in need of a hotel by up to £100/night. Quite aside from the fact it’s generally accepted in the EU that airlines should not place a cap on accommodation reimbursement, it’s a public relations disaster. “Whoever dreamt it up should be shot,” said Chris Yates, an industry analyst, which was a welcome dose of honesty for once.
And to think that London is hosting the 2012 Olympics. I am incredibly excited by the prospect of living in an Olympic city but, let’s face it: it’s all going to go horribly wrong, isn’t it?
Tags: 2012-olympics, disaster, heathrow, losers, terminal 5 |
I probably will be good living in an Olympic city for the fortnight it’s on, but what about before and after? The cost of the swimming pool is about £250m so you’ll probably be paying for it in higher taxes for a far longer time. Plus the only-good-for-two-weeks-before-it’s-shrunk stadium will cost £700m.
It looks like it’s already going horribly wrong.
Its not just the Dome and Heathrow. Most recently Wembley springs to mind. The footbridge in London??
If its a major project then we make a pigs ear of it!!
We worry if places like the caribbean can stage a cricket world cup, if Galle can get a stadium ready on time, if South Africa can host a football world cup and so on. Is it not about time we start wondering whether we can host an event as big as the olympics. Recent trends would suggest not!
There’s a pattern emerging. Not good for us.
The Chinese just built a new terminal in Beijing. It’s bigger than all the Heathrow terminals out together, and they employed 50,000 men to do it. The bloke at the openingpress conference said to the guy from the BBC, “you British have a more laid back attitude to construction.”
We are also inept.
It would have been better to have started slowly with just half-a-dozen flights per day and then built up as teething troubles were identified and ironed out.
Going at it full tilt from the start is nt good business practise.
As for it being a British engineering failure I just wonder what proportion of the management and workforce was indigenous?
I think I see one of my bags in that photo… so that’s where it went… :O
I’m meant to be flying from Terminal 5 first thing this morning. I’m looking forward to it like a trip to the dentist for root canal surgery.
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