Loading ...The chief executive of Heathrow Airport is resigning in the middle of the airport’s busiest season as record breaking numbers of people pass through the airport on their way to and from summer vacations. Tony Douglas decided to leave his job under pressure for continuing delays at the airport.
Chief executive for airport operator BAA, Stephen Nelson confirmed the resignation. “Tony’s outstanding achievement for BAA had been the development of Terminal 5, one of Europe’s largest building projects, which remains on time and on budget. I would like to thank Tony for his tremendous contribution and wish him every success in his new role,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Douglas began as the managing director of Heathrow in October 2005 and started his current position in July 2006. Since then Heathrow has undergone a number of security threats which have delayed planes on numerous occasions. In addition, the airport is seeing more traffic this year than ever before with an estimated 200,000 in the airport at peak times this summer.
“Heathrow is not blessed with spare capacity as most people know. There is no 50 per cent of spare space or 100 per cent spare staff waiting for a crisis. It’s not realistic,” he told the Guardian, as queues of delayed passengers waited outside terminal buildings. “There is no question that customer service at Heathrow has been unacceptable and at times it continues to be unacceptable,” he continued.
Leaving the unacceptable situation behind, Mr. Douglas will become the chief operating officer at a construction firm, Laing O’Rourke. Meanwhile, Mark Bullock will take over as chief executive at Heathrow.
www.baa.com
Steve
Did he really resign because he felt it was his fault or because he was just tired of working in a job with no rewards and too much pressure?