Heathrow Airport Worst European Gateway For 4th Straight Year Over Flight Delays

London, England (AHN) - Heathrow Airport was named worst among 27 European airports in a survey made by the Association of European Airlines. The basis of London gateway's cellar rating was 50 percent of flights from January to March that arrived or left Heathrow were late by at least 15 minutes.

It was Heathrow's 4th year in a row that it was included in the bottom five airports. If all passengers disadvantaged by Heathrow's delays would file for compensation, the airport would probably receive up to 1,000 claims daily at the rate of $680 (430 euro) per head.

The operator of Heathrow BAA attributed the flight delays to lack of runways. "Heathrow's two runways are operating at capacity, which means small events such as adverse weather, can cause major delays and disruptions... Other airports, which have plenty of spare runway capacity, do not suffer these problems," an airport spokesman said, quoted by the U.K. Telegraph.

One possible solution to Heathrow's congestion would be the construction of a high-speed rail network that would connect the London gateway with major British cities. About 2.5 million air passengers would no longer need to take domestic flights connecting from other U.K. destinations to Heathrow if a high-speed rail service would be in place.