Why Margaret Thatcher preferred Dubai airport to 'frustratingly dour' Heathrow

A note made public from the Iron Lady’s visit in 1981 reveals how unhappy she was with the condition of Britain’s top airport

Dubai International Airport in the 1980s. After a visit to the Gulf in 1981, UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher wrote of how impressed she was with Dubai airport and complained that London Heathrow was dreary in comparison. Photo: Dubai Airport

Passengers waiting in the crowded departure lounge at Terminal Three of London's Heathrow Airport, during delays caused by industrial action taken by Canadian air traffic controllers in August 1981. Getty

The entrance to Heathrow Airport in February 1978, when it was run by the UK state. Getty

Terminal One at Heathrow is deserted during a strike by British Airways maintenance staff in April 1977. Reuters

Escalators at Heathrow Underground at a standstill during strike action by London Transport maintenance engineers in December, 1977. Getty

Passengers asleep in the passenger lounge at Heathrow during delays caused by industrial action by French air traffic controllers. Getty

Cancellations cause crowding at Heathrow in April 1977. Getty

Passengers queue at Heathrow in August 1978. Getty

Weary passengers at Heathrow in 1979. Getty

Passengers wait beneath a Heathrow departures board in January 1979. Getty

It’s an unfavourable comparison still sometimes made to this day. The overcrowded and sometimes shabby experience of London’s Heathrow set against the gleaming Dubai International Airport.

What gave this particular grumble more clout was that it came from a British prime minister, who found Heathrow “frustratingly dour” in contrast to “well-organised, bright and aesthetically pleasing” Dubai.

The complainant was Margaret Thatcher, fresh from an overseas trade trip to the UAE.

A note now made public from the Iron Lady’s visit in April 1981 reveals just how unhappy she was with the condition of Britain’s top airport.

Sent on Thatcher’s orders by her diplomatic private secretary Michael Alexander, the letter pulls no punches in the assessment of Heathrow’s faults and who should take credit for Dubai’s achievements.

“Dubai Airport is overseen by a son of the Ruler of Dubai who is in his early 30s,” wrote Alexander, who was more used to briefing the prime minister on nuclear weapons and the threat from the Soviet Union.

One of the many volumes detailing Margaret Thatcher's 1981 visit to the Middle East. Courtesy: Arabian Gulf Digital Archive

“She poses the question of how Sheikh Mohammed can achieve this when the combined experience of HMG [Her Majesty’s Government] and Heathrow are unable to deliver the same or better?”

At the time, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, was responsible for developing Dubai’s infrastructure, of which the airport was a vital part.

“An airport provides the first impression that visitors have of a nation. The prime minister remains frustrated that the Heathrow experience is so irredeemably poor and suggests we learn some lessons from Dubai,” Alexander writes to George Walden, then private secretary to the foreign secretary Lord Carrington, but with a copy to Douglas Hurd, now Lord Hurd, as minister for Europe.

For good measure, the letter – marked “confidential” – also reveals that Norman Fowler, now Lord Fowler, was to be drawn into the debate as minister of transport.

In the early 1980s Heathrow was at a particularly low ebb. Matters improved considerably with the opening of the £200 million ($271m) Terminal 4 in 1986 and the £2.8 billion Terminal 5 in 2008, exclusively for the use of British Airways.

Dubai, though, has pulled even further ahead. In 2008 it opened Terminal 3, the largest airport terminal in the world. In 2014 it overtook Heathrow to become the world’s busiest airport for international passengers, a title it has held ever since.

Dubai airport over the decades: in pictures

Dubai International Airport celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2020. Here passengers board a plane parked on a sand compacted runway in the 1960s. All photos: Dubai Airports

Dubai airport in the 1960s. By 1968 the airport was served by nine international airlines flying to 20 destinations

Developments in the 1970s included a new three-storey terminal building, control tower, additional taxiways and longer runways

The airport's second runway, equipped with the latest technology, was opened in 1984

The transit lounge at Dubai International airport in the 1970s

The air traffic control tower at Dubai International airport in the 1970s

The airport in the 1970s

Dubai Duty Free began operations in 1983 and had an annual turnover of $20 million in its first year

An aerial view of the airport in the 1970s

Dubai International Airport has served more than a billion passengers travelling on almost 7.5 million flights since it opened in 1960

Terminal 3, the exclusive terminal for Emirates airline, was opened in 2008. It is the world’s largest single terminal

In 2014, Dubai International welcomed 70.4 million passengers, becoming the world’s busiest airport in terms of international passenger traffic

The airport welcomed its one billionth international passenger in 2018

It retained its title of the world’s busiest airport for international passengers for the sixth consecutive year in 2019, with 86.4 million passengers

Dubai airport in the 1990s. It was the first to introduce e-gates in 2002. Now, millions of passengers use the smart gates, which require residents to scan their passport or Emirates ID to avoid long queues