Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
LAXintl wrote:While airlines might love it, honestly does not make sense to see charges drop especially in today's inflationary environment.
By 2026 it will certainly cost more to operate LHR than it does today in 2022, so the money will have to come from somewhere.
AeroVega wrote:Even more shops with even higher prices then.
airbazar wrote:AeroVega wrote:Even more shops with even higher prices then.
I'll never understand why anyone needs to shop at the airport. The most annoying thing is when your flight arrives late and now you have to race thru duty free and slalom around shoppers to catch your connecting flight. That just happened to me in MAD and LIS. It was so frustrating. At least that's 1 good thing about T5. They don't make you slalom thru the duty free shop to get to your gate.
AeroVega wrote:Even more shops with even higher prices then.
PatrickZ80 wrote:AeroVega wrote:Even more shops with even higher prices then.
Then simply don't shop at an airport. Nobody forces you to buy anything.
Personally, I never buy anything at an airport except for food and drinks maybe. The shops are crazy expensive indeed, I can buy that cheaper elsewhere.
Heathrow was pricing itself out of the market indeed, it's way too expensive already. Even £26.31, which they are to drop to in 2026, is quite high. I mean, Gatwick charges £9 per passenger. Other London airports are said to be even lower but I couldn't find how low. It simply can't be that Heathrow is already 3 times as expensive as Gatwick and planning to increase prices even further.
I get that airports need to cover their costs but this is getting out of hand. With such high fees, Heathrow will lose customers to other airports that charge lower fees. In order to become competitive again, they need to charge competitive prices.
Etheereal wrote:Try looking at Luton and Stansted, i remember reading something like Ryanair and Easyjet holding them "hostage" with slot prices.
airlineworker wrote:For years FCO, MAD, BCN, FRA, LIS , etc had much lower taxes and got along fine.
PatrickZ80 wrote:Heathrow was pricing itself out of the market indeed, it's way too expensive already. Even £26.31, which they are to drop to in 2026, is quite high. I mean, Gatwick charges £9 per passenger. Other London airports are said to be even lower but I couldn't find how low. It simply can't be that Heathrow is already 3 times as expensive as Gatwick and planning to increase prices even further.
PatrickZ80 wrote:AeroVega wrote:Even more shops with even higher prices then.
Then simply don't shop at an airport. Nobody forces you to buy anything.
Personally, I never buy anything at an airport except for food and drinks maybe. The shops are crazy expensive indeed, I can buy that cheaper elsewhere.
Heathrow was pricing itself out of the market indeed, it's way too expensive already. Even £26.31, which they are to drop to in 2026, is quite high. I mean, Gatwick charges £9 per passenger. Other London airports are said to be even lower but I couldn't find how low. It simply can't be that Heathrow is already 3 times as expensive as Gatwick and planning to increase prices even further.
I get that airports need to cover their costs but this is getting out of hand. With such high fees, Heathrow will lose customers to other airports that charge lower fees. In order to become competitive again, they need to charge competitive prices.
mercure1 wrote:airlineworker wrote:For years FCO, MAD, BCN, FRA, LIS , etc had much lower taxes and got along fine.
Hardy apt to compare a few random airports.
Each airport is unique with its ownership structure, labor cost, debt, infrastructure development etc.
You also have the situation of COVID has impacted airports, put dent in their budgets and how passenger count changes have impact revenues.
DXTraveler wrote:I like LHR. UA has a nice lounge. But I almost always go via FRA so I don't have to pay.the $100 "tax" if my upgrade clears.
davidjohnson6 wrote:The *tax* goes to the UK Govt... none of that goes to LHR. It is a genuine Govt tax on travel whether you fly from Heathrow, Manchester or any other airport in the UK. The US$100 you mention is likely this Govt tax
The news is about the airport usage fees that Heathrow charges airlines... namely about GBP 30 or around US$40
davidjohnson6 wrote:The UK does not have a "save the earth" tax. All tax revenues go into a single pot, to be spent on whatever the Govt considers appropriate - be it healthcare, education, defence, etc. Unlike the USA, the UK does not link specific taxes with specific spending outcomes - the money all goes into one huge pot of cash.
The news this week is about Heathrow's GBP 30 charge per pax being reduced to GBP 26 over the next few years. Heathrow is NOT Govt owned - Govt tax money does not get funnelled to Heathrow under the table.
There is no news about the Govt tax element... and no prospect of a change to the Govt tax any time soon.
davidjohnson6 wrote:The UK does not have a "save the earth" tax. All tax revenues go into a single pot, to be spent on whatever the Govt considers appropriate - be it healthcare, education, defence, etc. Unlike the USA, the UK does not link specific taxes with specific spending outcomes - the money all goes into one huge pot of cash.
The news this week is about Heathrow's GBP 30 charge per pax being reduced to GBP 26 over the next few years. Heathrow is NOT Govt owned - Govt tax money does not get funnelled to Heathrow under the table.
There is no news about the Govt tax element... and no prospect of a change to the Govt tax any time soon.
Metchalus wrote:I have little faith in their current management l. Have they even demolished terminal 1 yet?
They had years to do so even before the pandemic.
Boeing74741R wrote:Metchalus wrote:I have little faith in their current management l. Have they even demolished terminal 1 yet?
They had years to do so even before the pandemic.
Pretty sure the main terminal building is still there, parts of it have long since been demolished to accommodate further T2 expansion.
Am I right in thinking that the plan (or part of the plan) was to eventually replace T3 with a further-expanded T2? Having flown through T3 very recently and thinking back to when I used T2 in 2015, I much preferred the T2 experience.
SCQ83 wrote:It seems LHR is lagging behind other European hubs in getting back to pre-COVID levels. Likely another Brexit consequence
superjeff wrote:SCQ83 wrote:It seems LHR is lagging behind other European hubs in getting back to pre-COVID levels. Likely another Brexit consequence
Not sure about that and I’d like to see some statistics. I made an international-to-international connection in LHR last November (MUC-LHR (LH) to LHR-IAD (UA), and the connection was unduly long and complicated (partially due to Covid, I’m certain, because of the Covid protocols in effect), but a connection at AMS, FRA, or MAD would have been much easier, not even considering places like BRU or VIE within the Schengen Zone.
airlineworker wrote:mercure1 wrote:airlineworker wrote:For years FCO, MAD, BCN, FRA, LIS , etc had much lower taxes and got along fine.
Hardy apt to compare a few random airports.
Each airport is unique with its ownership structure, labor cost, debt, infrastructure development etc.
You also have the situation of COVID has impacted airports, put dent in their budgets and how passenger count changes have impact revenues.
All airports I cited are large operations and yet have much lower ticket taxes. LHR is beyond many other large airports in it's tax rates. Many years back, in the year 2000 the taxes on a LHR ticket was about 100.00 dollars, a few years later trips to European airports had a tax rate of about 35-55 dollars. Since that time LHR taxes went up making an even greater disparity in ticket taxes.
eurotrader85 wrote:Boeing74741R wrote:Metchalus wrote:I have little faith in their current management l. Have they even demolished terminal 1 yet?
They had years to do so even before the pandemic.
Pretty sure the main terminal building is still there, parts of it have long since been demolished to accommodate further T2 expansion.
Am I right in thinking that the plan (or part of the plan) was to eventually replace T3 with a further-expanded T2? Having flown through T3 very recently and thinking back to when I used T2 in 2015, I much preferred the T2 experience.
IIRC that plan was put to bed after another PowerPoint 'future vision plan', along with plans such as T5D etc which were then supposed to be further connected on the underground shuttle train to T3. Probably for the best a grand demolition of T3 has been cancelled given how long it is taking to complete the demolition of T1 and the T2 expansion.
Boeing74741R wrote:Metchalus wrote:I have little faith in their current management. Have they even demolished terminal 1 yet?
They had years to do so even before the pandemic.
Pretty sure the main terminal building is still there, parts of it have long since been demolished to accommodate further T2 expansion.
Am I right in thinking that the plan (or part of the plan) was to eventually replace T3 with a further-expanded T2?
.
LAXintl wrote:While airlines might love it, honestly does not make sense to see charges drop especially in today's inflationary environment.
By 2026 it will certainly cost more to operate LHR than it does today in 2022, so the money will have to come from somewhere.
william wrote:davidjohnson6 wrote:The *tax* goes to the UK Govt... none of that goes to LHR. It is a genuine Govt tax on travel whether you fly from Heathrow, Manchester or any other airport in the UK. The US$100 you mention is likely this Govt tax
The news is about the airport usage fees that Heathrow charges airlines... namely about GBP 30 or around US$40
Wait, I thought that was the "save the earth" tax?
william wrote:So what tax is it when I fly on British Airways from Europe through Heathrow to the US on an AA free ticket and it costs me close to $300 in taxes and fees?
Flying from the US through Heathrow to Europe on an AA free ticket costs me $65 in fees.
Are we talking about the same tax?
william wrote:So what tax is it when I fly on British Airways through Heathrow from Europe to the US on an AA free ticket and yet it costs me close to $300 in taxes and fees? Flying from US to Europe through Heathrow on AA on free ticket costs me $65 in fees.
Are we talking about the same tax?
BealineV953 wrote:william wrote:So what tax is it when I fly on British Airways from Europe through Heathrow to the US on an AA free ticket and it costs me close to $300 in taxes and fees?
Flying from the US through Heathrow to Europe on an AA free ticket costs me $65 in fees.
Are we talking about the same tax?
Where you say 'free ticket', do you mean an employee concessional ticket, or using frequent flyer miles / points?
seansasLCY wrote:william wrote:So what tax is it when I fly on British Airways through Heathrow from Europe to the US on an AA free ticket and yet it costs me close to $300 in taxes and fees? Flying from US to Europe through Heathrow on AA on free ticket costs me $65 in fees.
Are we talking about the same tax?
Because BA charges surcharges under this. This article explains it well. https://thepointsguy.com/news/avios-red ... arges/amp/