Sack Heathrow’s boss? No, put him on the front line

Airports are on my mind, since I’ve just stepped off an on-time early-morning flight from East Midlands to Bergerac – yes, Ryanair, efficient as ever. But what a relief not to be battling through Heathrow, where such anarchy has taken hold that the Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport have given chief executive John Holland-Kaye an ‘ultimatum’ to sort it out – after he capped passenger numbers at 100,000 a day, forcing innumerable flight cancellations. As the airport that used to be Britain’s gateway to the world becomes a global embarrassment, attention turns to the question of whether the man in charge should resign or be fired.

I had always assumed Holland-Kaye was no more than a flak-taking PR, but I see he takes credit for delivering the Terminal 2 refurb on budget in 2014 and has a background in housebuilding. As a highly paid hands-on boss rather than a mere spokesman, he deserves even more stick for misjudging the pace at which travel demand would recover while blaming everyone else for his domain’s mounting chaos.