Heathrow Haters Club

It's not exactly news that London's Heathrow Airport is an unwelcome destination. "London may be lost to a lot of us for years to come," Portfolio.com's Joe Brancatelli wrote earlier this month as he ticked off complaint after complaint about London in general and Heathrow in particular.

Brancatelli, who labeled Heathrow "a nightmare,"can take some solace in the fact that his point of view is shared by London's new Minister for the City. Kitty Ussher, who holds the title Economic Secretary to the Treasury, told the Financial Times in her first interview that she's worried Heathrow's problems will lead to multinational corporations rethinking holding their annual meetings in London.

"They often have it in a different financial center every year, or board meetings, that kind of thing," she told the newspaper. "I don't want their New York or Dubai executives saying 'Oh God, I don't want to go through Heathrow'. I don't want that to be an issue."

"You spend so much time being processed. That's the issue... passports, security, just the layout of the buildings which makes it more difficult," said the 36-year-old Ussher, a Labour Party member and a member of Parliament since the 2005 elections.

But even though Ussher is adding her voice to the list of Heathrow's critics, she apparently didn't talk to the Financial Times about solutions other than to say she hoped to play "a brokerage role" giving the financial services industry more of a voice at Whitehall.

Heathrow has had other high-profile critics. Tony Douglas, the airport's chief executive, complained earlier this year about Heathrow's infrastructure, saying it was "held together with sticking plaster." But Douglas is no longer on the job. He quit earlier this month to join a construction firm tied to the 2012 London Olympics.

The Summer Games in five years are a benchmark for Heathrow. Next spring, a new Terminal Five is set to open. Once it's in operation, however, other construction plans to redevelop or rebuild other facilities at the airport will last until just before the games begin.

By J. Jennings Moss