Heathrow snow chaos: BAA prepares new emergency rules

BAA is drawing up plans for a railway-style emergency timetable at Heathrow in the event of extreme weather conditions, after intense criticism of its handling of December's big freeze . The airports operator is in talks with airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Department for Transport to create a system that will bind carriers to a reduced schedule at Britain's biggest airport if severe weather cripples its twin runways. Hundreds of thousands of passengers were stranded in the run-up to Christmas after one hour of snowfall partially paralysed the airport for four days. The disruption left BAA with a £24m bill and cost British Airways as much as £50m. As it prepares to give evidence on the snow fiasco to MPs this week, BAA wants to eliminate the haggling over take-off and landing slots that led some flights to be listed on departure boards even though there was no space for them to take off. It cut the number of available slots by two-thirds but struggled to impose a matching schedule, with some carriers operating rogue flights. "We are exploring how an emergency timetable could be applied at Heathrow," a spokesman said. "Such a timetable would enable us to provide more reliable information and reduce congestion. The airlines expect us to take a lead, and we will do so."