Britain moves to promote the interests of airline passengers

The government of the United Kingdom is planning to update the regulations of airports in the country with steps aimed at ensuring better convenience and comforts for airline passengers.

The Civil Aviation Authority, the aviation regulator of Britain, has been entrusted with the primary task of espousing the interests of passengers.

Passenger Focus, the independent, national consumer watchdog for rail and bus users, will take care of the interests of airline passengers, too.

The Civil Aviation Authority will also ensure that airports meet their environmental responsibilities and that the economic and environmental regulations of the country’s airports are consistent, Geoff Hoon, Britain’s Transport secretary, announced.

Britain’s newspaper Independent quoted Geoff Hoon as saying that a survey showed that passengers were “broadly happy” with their experience at airports, but there were areas of concern, including baggage-handling, the need for more seating and toilets and better flight information. “These are exactly the kind of issues,” he added, “that the government expects the Civil Aviation Authority to address in discharging its new duty.”

At present, the primary duty of the Civil Aviation Authority is to the users of airports, which includes airlines as well as passengers. “The CAA has told us that its current duties lack clarity and it has been told to further the interests of both airlines and passengers, without saying who comes first,” the Independent quoted Hoon as saying. “Now, I am removing that lack of clarity – the passenger must come first.”

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, told the media that the consumer watchdog wanted to publish a list of the best-performing and worst-performing airports in the United Kingdom in a regular “national passenger survey,” which has proved to be a successful way of enhancing the functioning of rail companies.

Airlines that are unpopular with travellers, Smith went on, would be exposed in the survey, which would be updated every three months. Passenger Focus would “name and shame” those airports that make passengers wait for long for their luggage, confuse flight information and cause long queues at the immigration desk, he said.

In a statement, the Civil Aviation Authority said it welcomed the government’s proposals that included a three-tier licensing system allowing the agency “to adapt the regulatory regime and take swifter action to remedy service quality issues.”

Harry Bush, the Civil Aviation Authority’s director of economic regulation, elaborated in the statement: “Giving the CAA a primary duty to passengers reflects the growing consensus that passengers need to be put at the heart of airport regulation.”

The British Airports Authority (BAA), which runs 7 airports in the United Kingdom, including London’s Heathrow Airport and London’s Stansted Airport, also hailed the government’s plan to promote the interests of airline passengers.

The BAA said in a press release that it supported the key policy objectives of the plan and that any future aviation regulations should aim at “improving customer service at every stage of the passenger journey as well as taking care of the wider environmental impacts of aviation and development of airports.”