Mitchell LabiakBusiness reporter
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Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 is not crowded — people are just walking in the “wrong place”, the airport’s boss has said.
Thomas Woldbye told an industry event “all the British people keep to the left and all the Europeans keep to the right”, making the terminal feel crowded “when it’s not actually”.
“And they do that in both directions, so we get everybody crashing into each other, and I see that from personal experience,” he added.
Woldbye told the Aviation Club UK event that, even though the government backed the expansion, he was “not sure of anything”.
“We have a very solid description of how that looks and what we’re going to build.
“What we don’t have is necessary modernisation of airspace.
“We don’t have a long-term regulation which is clear in terms of building a business case,” he said.
He added that “lots of stuff has to be done this year in order to enable the actual commencement of building”.
Some 84 million passengers a year fly from Heathrow, but the airport says it could increase this to 150 million with a third runway.
The government has said the expansion is badly needed to help economic growth, though some economists dispute this.
Others are opposed to the expansion on environmental grounds and on the disruption it would cause to people who currently live near the airport.
‘Soft skills’
While the expansion may be a long way off, Woldbye told Aviation Club UK there were still “soft skills” the airport could use to manage more passengers — such stopping Europeans and Brits from bumping into each other.
“We can change that,” he said, adding the airport needs to make sure people going one way keep to a different side to people going the other direction.
“And I know that’s simplified, but that’s the sort of thinking that you need.”
“We measure crowding, but we also measure people’s perceptions of crowding… And interestingly, Terminal 3 has the best score and Terminal 5 has one of the worst, and there’s way more space in Terminal 5, so what are we doing wrong?”
He said the airport has removed some seating, telephone boxes, and other “clutter” in Terminal 3 and that it feels less crowded as a result, even though there are more people.
“People feel more at ease… because they can see where they are going,” he added.
