The recent opening of the Terminal 5 in London was an interesting experience for the industry (and an untoward one for the paying customers). It seems that the two organizations involved not only failed to deliver a reliable service but were unable to (or unwilling to) come with a reliable alternate plan.

The events in T5 demonstrate, that allowing airlines and airport to operate without strong government supervision can have negative consequences not only for the traveling public but for the industry itself. Over the years an increasing number of airports have been privatized and are ran as private business with little regard (according to many observers) to the needs of passengers or airlines regarding a smooth trip.

While a fairly comprehensive (but vague) set of regulation specifies the rights of passengers in respects to the airlines a lot is left to be desired regarding airports. To add insult to the injury, airport taxes tend to be higher that a lot of air fares and airports with some exceptions tend to be natural monopolies. How many airports can one choose from in most European cities with the exception of the capitals?

In other words nowadays airports are seen as cash-cows rather like critical piece of the national infrastructure to be paid for and used by all tax-payers (like the highways or the national defense). Although it may sound like it is coming from an 80’s European politician speech it might worth considering having the airports operating under public interest principal where profit objectives take a back seat and make the use of an airport a positive experience.