LONDON — The British summer this year has been a nonevent: Rain, clouds and wind. The temptation has been to fly south to the Mediterranean where the sun has been scorching.
But there is no joy in flying these days. The main London airports are overcrowded, there are long lines for check-in and security checks, many flights are delayed, and luggage, if it has not been lost in transit, takes a long time to reach the carousels.
Heathrow in particular is regarded by many as a hellhole, and there has been vociferous criticism of the British Airports Authority (BAA) for inadequate investment and insufficient security staff. There is pressure on BAA, which was recently bought with Spanish equity and borrowed money, to sell off at least one of London's other two main airports, Gatwick and Stansted (probably the former), to inject some competition into the provision of airports. But airports intrinsically are monopolies and it is difficult to see how this proposal would help, at least in the short term.