Heathrow a joke, says airline chief

Heathrow was today branded "a national embarrassment" by the head of the world's airline community.

Giovanni Bisignani, head of the International Air Transport Association - a trade group of international airlines - said the airport, its owner BAA and its regulator the Civil Aviation Authority, had become a laughing stock.

Speaking at the association's annual conference in Istanbul, Mr Bisignani said: "Look at Heathrow, service levels are a national embarrassment.

"This year's worst regulator award goes to the UK's CAA. The CAA approved increase in charges [to airlines at Heathrow] of 50per cent over the last five years and 86per cent over the next five. Who in this room could argue for a fare increase of 86 per cent. Nobody. Why is that? It only happens in monopolyland."

The attacks from the former head of Alitalia came as the IATA pleaded with governments to drop taxes on fuel, airlines and airports in an attempt to prevent dozens of bankruptcies in the aviation industry.

IATA said today that it now predicts losses in the global airline industry of $2.3billion (£1.2billion) this year as opposed to an earlier forecast of £4.5billion profit.

"The situation has changed dramatically in recent weeks," said Mr Bisignani. "Oil skyrocketing above $130 a barrel has brought us into uncharted territory. Add in the weakening global economy and this is yet another perfect storm."

British airline Silverjet went bust over the weekend and the future funding of Heathrow remained uncertain today as BAA's owner Ferrovial continued in its attempts to refinance its £10billion debt mountain.