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Heathrow CEO quits
After nine years as CEO of Heathrow Airport, John Holland-Kaye has informed the Board of his intention to stand down as CEO during 2023.
The Chair of Heathrow Airport, Lord Deighton said:
“John has been an extraordinary leader of Heathrow. During the past nine years, he has worked tirelessly and collaboratively with shareholders, Ministers, airlines and other stakeholders to ensure the country can be proud of its ‘front door’. The Board would like to put on record our gratitude to John for his dedication and commitment to Heathrow throughout his tenure as CEO.”
The Board has now initiated a selection process for John’s replacement. In order to ensure a smooth handover, John will remain as CEO until his successor starts in post.
I think Heathrow is long overdue a new CEO. As a frequent traveller through Heathrow, it feels a shadow of its pre Covid self in terms of customer experience with continuing staff shortages meaning that security lanes such as transfer fast track are not open. While everyone has struggled with finding staff after Covid, Heathrow have definitely lagged behind others but have much higher charges per passenger than other airports.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic return to Mainland China
After a two-year absence, British Airways has announced it will resume flights between the UK and mainland China. Tickets have gone on sale today for flights to Shanghai from 23 April and Beijing from 3 June. Including Avios flights. China recently announced it was relaxing Covid rules for travellers.
The extra capacity in the system from Chinese airlines will hopefully add to the easing of demand eventually and lower prices.
From 23 April, flights will operate daily between London Heathrow and Shanghai Pudong International Airport – flight numbers BA168/BA169. From 3 June, flights will operate four times per week between London Heathrow and Beijing Daxing Airport – flight numbers BA88/89.
Virgin Atlantic is to restart its flights to Shanghai, re-establishing essential business and leisure connections between the United Kingdom and China. The daily service will resume on 01 May 2023, with fares starting from £669 per person.
Shanghai is Virgin Atlantic’s final route to be re-instated following the global pandemic, having been closed for a total of 859 days at the point of its relaunch.
Customers travelling to China do not need to show proof of vaccination, however each passenger will need to show proof of a negative PCR test before they enter the country, alongside a health declaration form. Passengers arriving from China into the UK must take a negative PCR or lateral flow test. You can check
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china for the latest travel advice.
Virgin also said they were expecting to join Skyteam in the next few weeks.
British Airways to lease Titan aircraft
BA are leasing Titan aircraft to cover some short haul routes from Heathrow during February and March. The routes expected to feature Titan aircraft are Athens, Barcelona, Geneva, Lisbon, Manchester, Marrakech, Nice, Rome, Vienna, Warsaw and Zurich all from Heathrow. The leased aircraft will only be on certain flights to these destinations, not all of them.
These will be staffed by Titan crew but have the full BA experience. You can read our review of a similar flight with Titan here.
2 comments
He’s quit, thank god! Could not agree more Michele. He was happy to spout platitudes re difficult times to ITV’s documentary cameras the past 2 years; whilst seeing staff off, providing flimsy challenge to ministerial travel nonsense and the greatest failing of being glacial paced at restoring service levels. It appeared the board had long ago decided not to provide proper scrutiny of him.
Holland-Kaye gone thank goodness. He was always better known for the size of his bonuses than his ability to run an airport and of course before Covid it was an easy job, the money rolled in and he took the bonuses in huge numbers.
Now LHR is still struggling to get back to some sort of normal and it’s a poor experience compared to almost anywhere else and the blame must be laid at Holland-Kaye’s door and he has demonstrated that he is only a ‘fair weather’ CEO who takes the money but has no ability to actually manage anything in a difficult time. Good riddance and let’s hope someone more competent is appointed though that’s a very low bar.
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