Service quality rebate

The Service Quality Rebate Scheme was introduced by the CAA to identify the service standards that airlines and passengers could expect from Heathrow in return for the regulatory charges they paid. Where performance falls below a certain level, Heathrow must repay a proportion of charges levied back to the airlines. The service quality rebate scheme is a Licence condition in Q6.

Key features of the scheme:

• Provides an incentive to the airport to meet set standards of service quality
• Rebate payments are made monthly to airlines
• The maximum amount of rebates that could be paid is 7% of airport charges
• Rebates are paid on performance in an individual terminal apart from control posts where any rebate is paid to the whole airline community and the Aerodrome Congestion Term which is calculated and paid for the airfield as a whole.

Changes to the scheme in Q6 include:

1. Passenger security queue standard will move to a per passenger basis during Q6 with the same standard applying to transfer and direct passengers.
2. A control post standard based on performance of control post groupings, rather than campus wide performance, with Heathrow required to meet the standard in all five groupings.

The scheme also includes a bonus element on passenger satisfaction measures to reward high performance that benefits passengers. The maximum additional revenue achievable via bonuses at Heathrow is 1.44 % of airport charges.