Airports quote minimum
connection times to convince you to use them as hubs, but are they really
viable, asks Alex
McWhirter.
Why do airports and airlines persist in quoting passengers unrealistic
transfer times? That’s a question many readers who have had business
appointments ruined by missed connections regularly put to Business
Traveller.
The truth is
that minimum connection times (MCTs) at some airports are too short because
they’re aimed at winning custom from rivals rather than ensuring that you make
your onward flight. Since direct flights don’t exist for many important
business routes, travellers flying from, say, Stuttgart to Chicago, or
Edinburgh to Hong Kong or Gothenburg, need to make an en route connection and
may well have several choices.
A number of
considerations come into the final decision but one of them is overall length
of journey, and at such times a short MCT can be persuasive. It is even more so
considering that airport hubs work with their dominant airline. So a major hub
like Munich will work in tandem with Lufthansa, likewise Amsterdam Schiphol
will co-operate with KLM, and Paris CDG with Air France. All do their utmost to
entice passengers to use their hub as a place to make a change of plane.
Nigel
Turner, director of UK public sector at travel agent CWT, says: “The general
view is that [these short MCTs] are a marketing ploy by the airlines and airports.
These are minimum connecting times, so they’re valid
only if everything runs like clockwork, but how often does this happen?”
Transit
passengers are valuable. They generate millions of pounds of revenue and they
enable that city’s airport to develop a greater range of air services than
would normally be justified. This, in turn, encourages trade and investment for
that country or region.
Another
reason why airlines and airports are keen on the shortest MCT is because flight
routings are listed in order of elapsed flight time, so the shortest trips are
displayed first on the screens of mega booking-systems like Amadeus, which in
turn power airline and travel-agency sites. Being listed at the top of the page
is important because it’s reckoned as many as 80 per cent of online users book
from page one of the display. (Amadeus was unavailable for comment.) If a
travel agent is making the booking then a good firm should advise the passenger
that the connection is tight, but many travellers now book direct, in which
case they may be unaware of the pitfalls.
For their
part, the airlines argue that customers want the fastest trip possible. A
spokesperson for Lufthansa says: “Most passengers prefer to avoid long transit
times and so we establish viable and realistic connecting times with the
airport authorities.”
However,
short MCTs also contribute to Europe’s mountain of delayed baggage. According
to trade body AEA (the Association of European Airlines), in 2007, member
carriers mislaid over 16 bags per 1,000 passengers. Based on the number of
flights made by its members, that equates to six million bags going astray.
James Fremantle, industry affairs manager of the AUC (a UK passenger watchdog),
believes that 60 per cent of baggage problems within Europe are the result of
tight connections.
So why are
some MCTs deemed unviable? It’s because they haven’t been extended to take
account of the industry’s growth. CWT’s Turner says: “Airports have changed
over the years. It’s not only their sheer size – passengers and airlines must
face stricter security, take-off slot restrictions, use of bus transfers and so
on.”
Take
Schiphol airport. It opened in 1967, and in the space of 40 years, its single
terminal has not only quadrupled in size but passengers now have to undergo
further checks if bound to or from EU cities in the Schengen zone. Airlines
have also found that their flights can be directed to the new Polderbaan
runway, seven kilometres from the terminal, meaning their planes spend a
further ten to 15 minutes taxiing around the airfield. Yet for all this,
Schiphol’s MCTs have barely changed, and when I asked the airport on three
occasions to comment on whether its MCTs were sufficient, a spokesperson would
only repeat that “our MCT is 40 minutes for European and 50 minutes for
intercontinental flights”.
AUC’s
Fremantle says: “Passengers don’t want to hang around airports, but our concern
is that they aren’t being told the full story. In particular, KLM markets
itself as a connecting airline, yet if a connection is missed, even between two
KLM flights, this airline will not provide hotel accommodation [should a
passenger be stranded overnight].
“Most of the
airlines we talked to said they would provide assistance to connecting
passengers, but they did not include this in their conditions of carriage.
There should be rules brought in to cover missed connections. It’s something
the EU missed out in its last set of passenger protection legislation [February
2005].”
Some airports are seeing
the light. Although Frankfurt retains its 45-minute MCT, Lufthansa now insists
on 60 minutes when passengers are connecting to or from the US, or between
non-Schengen and Schengen destinations. At Dubai, an increasingly busy terminal
has prompted Emirates to extend the MCT from 60 to 75 minutes. MCTs at Heathrow
are longer than at competitors, and the authority insists on two-hour (cynics
say two days would be more appropriate) transfers between the new T5 and
existing terminals.
How to
minimise the risks
Air travel can be unpredictable, so here are some tips to
help avoid losing your connection…
- For the easiest transfers, always change between the same carrier (including codeshare services) or between carriers belonging to the same alliance. These flights will mostly operate within the same terminal and staff should offer more assistance. However, Heathrow is an exception to the rule. Here you’ll find airlines (even those linked with the same alliance) scattered throughout five separate terminals.
- At the risk of sounding a bore, I believe it’s wise to allow two to three hours when changing planes at a European hub, depending on its size. Allow much longer when arriving in the US and making a domestic connection. Times will vary depending on the gateway. You might need as much as three to four hours at LA but a shorter time might suffice at Atlanta. Better to be safe than sorry.
- If your final destination is not served regularly (and the onward flight has a reasonably early departure) then consider staying overnight at the hub. Carriers will tend to honour the through-fare when you make a short stopover.