Terminal failure

The eagerly anticipated launch of Terminal five (T5) at London Heathrow couldn't have been worse. Flights to Manchester, Paris, Brussels, Newcastle and Edinburgh were among those cancelled. As the Leader in the Guardian of London observed, "it would be no bad thing if they never resumed. The world's most overworked airport has become a bloated catastrophe, a transit point for travellers who could be carried more efficiently and environmentally by other routes. The chaos of the last few days has been awful for passengers and fairly humiliating for Britain, but it might in the end do some good if it leads to a rethink of endless airport expansion in a country where transport policy appears to be dictated by the needs of Fortress Heathrow."

Us airports face ever longer delays

Wired Magazine has rated the US airports that face the longest delays and rendered it in a useful Google Map. It makes grim reading for anyone flying in or through the States. "The year 2007 was the worst for flight delays," it reads, "since the [US] government began keeping stats more than a decade ago. In 2002, 17 percent of flights arrived late (defined by the Federal Air Authority as delayed 15 minutes or more). Last summer it was nearly a third, and travel in 2008 won't be much better."


Newark Liberty is bottom of the list, racking up an astonishing average of 72.8 minutes for arrival delays and 67.3 minutes for departures