Privatised Infrastructure and the sad case of Heathrow

Heathrow, like Gatwick and Stanstead, is operated by BAA. Despite the positive impression created by the new Terminal 5, most of Heathrow is in a terrible state. It's old. It has little or no natural light. It's cramped. And it is stuffed full of shops and nasty food outlets to keep the waiting masses spending. Compared with many large airports - Hong Kong springs immediately to mind - it's embarrassing. Worse, the squalor and massive misery generation of Heathrow was entirely avoidable.

Stock companies have one aim: generating shareholder value. They have a legal obligation to work to that one end. They explicitly shouldn't care about national pride, client unhappiness, or holding back the broader economy if it gets in the way of making more money for shareholders. Hence not only can you not blame BAA for Heathrow, you should expect Heathrow to be as it is given it is privately owned and lightly regulated. BAA are doing what they are supposed to do: making money for their owners, Ferrovial. (Or in BAA's case, losing rather less money than they otherwise would.) The fact that this does not serve the countries' best interests, nor passengers, nor airlines, is irrelevant.

This is why private ownership of public infrastructure is inherently problematic. And why we won't be getting an airport anywhere near as good as Hong Kong's any time soon. Now wish me well - I have to use Heathrow again on Friday.

Update. It seems BAA can't even manage to run a brand new terminal properly. The BBC reports:

Cancelled flights and baggage delays have blighted the opening day of Heathrow's new £4.3bn Terminal 5.

British Airways, which has sole use of the terminal, was forced to cancel 34 flights by 1400 GMT due to "teething problems" encountered in the morning.

And it carried on. On Sunday we heard from the Guardian:

British Airways warned last night that the disruption that has plagued Heathrow's Terminal Five could run through this week as it emerged that 15,000 bags have yet to be returned to their owners. This figure is three times higher than BA had originally admitted to. Following three days of cancellations which saw more than 150 flights grounded and thousands of passengers disrupted, the airline, which has exclusive use of T5, said that a further 37 flights would not take off today.