Terminal 5 chaos to cost British Airways £16m

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Published: 04 Apr 2008

British Airways reportedly disclosed a 5% fall in business-class passengers last month and a £16 million bill for the chaotic opening of Terminal 5 (T5).

BA also reported a 5% plunge in premium traffic and a 2.3% fall in non-premium business.

Chief executive Willie Walsh has repeatedly assured investors in recent months that business and first-class bookings, the source of most of the carrier's profits, had remained strong in the face of the stumbling US and UK economies. The company said the drop could partly be explained by the timing of Easter, which fell in April last year.

Regarding T5, BA shared the financial impact of the events surrounding the T5 opening - with dozens of flights cancelled and thousands of bags still not back with passengers - was "estimated to be around £16 million."

"We would expect next week to get back to a full programme," BA's head of investor relations George Stinnes told media.

The airline said the impact of disruption had been borne by its short-haul routes where there were 300 cancelled flights, equating to 0.2% of capacity.

Comments

Pitkin said on 5 Apr 08:

I will not be surprised to learn that this £16 million figure is much, much lower than the actual financial impact. This announcement following the chaos is nothing more than a sugar-coated press release. For weeks and months prior to the opening of T5, there were news reports that predicted disaster -- predictions that unfortunately were accurate.

As for George Stinnes telling the media that things will be operating well next week, that is nothing more than a smoke screen in a futile effort to buy some time and to hold back an uprising by passengers who must pass through T5.

Why is such incompetence tolerated? How soon will Willie Walsh be fired?

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