Spring forward, fall over: Gatwick forgets to change their clocks

We always wonder what sort of person manages to miss the many messages instructing you to change your clocks as Summertime gives way again to GMT. After all, you'd have to be a bit daft to forget, wouldn't you?

It turns out BAA is a bit daft. They somehow managed to leave Gatwick stuck in BST when the rest of the nation shifted to GMT this morning, thereby creating a whole new flavour of chaos:

Arrival and departure times at Gatwick airport are being published incorrectly on Teletext, Ceefax, the Gatwick website and within the airport itself.

Not every flight is affected. Airport operator BAA said it was mainly domestic flights and some European flights.

You have to take your hat off to BAA - just when you think their amateur-hour performances can't get any worse, they manage to surprise you some more.

Rumours that Ferovial executives spent thirty minutes arguing amongst themselves "is it spring back, fall forward or the other way around" before someone was able to check the correct details in their daughter's My Little Pony Pocket Diary are probably just cruel jibes.

JLA strikes; LHR scolded

As Liverpool prepares for its year in the Capital of Culture glare - it's not clear if it'll be searchlight or spotlight yet - staff at John Lennon Airport are set to strike over a long-running wages dispute.

The offer - a percentage point below what Unions were looking for - won't be recommended to the firefighters, maintainence staff and birdscarers at JLA.

In other airport news, the Competition Commission has oked a rise in fees charged to airlines using Heathrow, but has also called for larger fines for the times when BAA screws up:

The commission says that during its inquiry it received “strong criticisms of quality of service, particularly at Heathrow.”

The problems were not all due to BAA but were also caused by other organisations at the airports including the airlines and the immigration authorities.

The report says, however, that “important aspects of BAA’s performance have been poor.” The existing regime for penalising BAA for weak performance based on service quality rebates paid to the airlines must be “extended and strengthened,” it says.

It criticises the present scheme because it omits “key aspects of performance, including maximum lengths of security queues, and the security arrangements for transfer passengers, airline staff and perimeter control points where performance has been particularly poor.”

BAA, of course, isn't happy at suggestions that it be made to compensate airlines more generously. Understandable, as Heathrow is such a shambles at the moment it'd be losing money like a drunk playing poker with cardsharks. It admits as much:

n a statement on Wednesday, BAA said that the commission’s proposals “introduce a high degree of risk” over plans to refinance its debt.

In other words: their capacity to foul-up operations would leave its future financial plans looking very dodgy indeed.