Heathrow the world’s worst airport? Tell us something we don’t know.

Click on the link to “Awards we have won” on the Heathrow website and up pops a rather limp “page unavailable” notice.

Heathrow’s problems start with congestion off the M4, cramped check-in areas and the shoddy infrastructure that Langford refers to; and are rounded-off with a miserable welcome back home in a spiralling passport queue that ends with another wait in a claustrophobic baggage hall.

So Stansted, Luton and Gatwick aren’t perfect – but at least you don’t have to circle above them in a stack of aircraft on the majority of arriving flights. Heathrow’s air traffic control aim for around six aircraft stacking at any one time above the airport and a wait of no more than ten minutes, but the delay can be significantly more than that - more like 17 minutes in fact.

A Department for Transport study released at the end of last year found average departure delays at Heathrow had risen from 15.9 minutes in 2002 to 20.2 minutes in 2006, and punctuality had fallen from 70 per cent to 61 per cent in the same period. The same report claimed Heathrow is now rated 80th out of 93 international airports in terms of overall quality.

Somehow Heathrow has managed to score a passable three out of five in the respected forum of frequent fliers, airquality.com. This puts the airport on a par with Kuwait International and Johannesburg International airports, and a long way behind the four and five star credentials of airports such as Hong Kong, Singapore Changi and Amsterdam Schipol.

Like Langford, airquality.com reviewers complain about shabby décor, cramped conditions and dirty toilets. A few also mention the long queues for the iris scanning lane – an initiative that was supposed to expedite passport control for frequent flyers, but in many cases takes longer than the conventional route.

When Terminal 5 opened in March it was billed as the saviour of Heathrow, but we all know about that shambles – let’s hope the Terminal 1 and Terminal 4 refurbishments scheduled for next year will finally give the airport owners something to shout about – and even give them cause to dust down that trophy cabinet.

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