At Heathrow, snow fell on airport already beset by troubles

With passengers still deeply angry and politicians echoing their complaints, the most enduring damage from the snowstorm may be to the reputation of an airport that was already in need of an upgrade .

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, chief executive of airline British Midland International, put the blame squarely on Heathrow’s owner, Spanish-owned BAA.

“BAA was not prepared,’’ Prock-Schauer told the Times newspaper. “It did not have enough deicing fluid.’’

Heathrow said the chaos was a result of the airport’s lack of spare capacity and unusually harsh weather — Meteorological Office figures show 3 inches of snow fell Saturday and quickly froze. The airport, which said 5 inches fell, strongly denied running short on deicing fluid.

Heathrow said it was running almost 900 flights yesterday, 70 percent of a full service, after finally reopening both runways for the first time since Saturday. Many of the travelers who had slept on terminal floors amid mounds of luggage were finally getting on planes. But they weren’t happy.

BAA would not reveal the size of the bonus Matthews is giving up, but his salary and bonuses for last year came to $1.46 million.

He said the airport was “fully operational’’ but acknowledged “it’s still going to take several days to get everyone where they want to be.’’

He said Heathrow would be buying new cold-weather equipment, and promised this week’s chaotic scenes would not be repeated.

Heathrow’s recent history has been dotted with woes.

Two years ago the gleaming new Terminal 5 — billions of dollars and almost 20 years in the making — opened with chaotic scenes and flight cancellations when a state-of-the-art baggage-handling system broke down within hours of the opening

Thousands of passengers also have been disrupted by a series of strikes by cabin crew at British Airways, which uses Heathrow as its base.

The airport said runways and stands took a long time to clear simply because Heathrow is so busy. Designed to serve about 45 million passengers a year, it now handles around 67 million.

Other European airports, including those in Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Paris, also experienced closures and cancellations this week, although they recovered more quickly.