Both British Airways and Ryanair will cut capacity this winter, joining the ranks of American carriers that have already announced cutbacks because of the escalating cost of fuel. BA chairman Martin Broughton said today that his airline would be making bank if oil still cost $85 a barrel, a price last seen in February. But instead of bragging about handsome profits, he declared that he and his colleagues are in the midst of
Perhaps the biggest crisis the aviation industry has ever known.
British Airways boss Willie Walsh must be smiling this week because he's going around telling anyone who'll listen that the disaster that was the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow is now "working well."
So well, in fact, that BA is now finally going to move the rest of their flights over there--yep, the flights they were going to move back in April. On June 5, eight destinations from Terminal 4 will move to T5, including flights to New York's JFK. The rest will be moved over in the next couple of months.
Willie probably wasn't smiling when the news came out over the weekend that "a small number" of incoming foreign passengers in the early days of T5 were dropped off at the wrong doors and let into Britain without showing their passports. They probably just turned around and flew home in disgust after their their luggage never showed up.
Speaking of airport baggage drama, this Flash game has to be the funniest take on the T5 debacle we've seen. Think of it as Donkey Kong with an airline executive instead of an Italian plumber.
You control British Airways CEO Willie Walsh, and you have to get a pile of bags sorted onto a conveyor belt while maniacal luggage carts come at you. We're still working on our technique, but we hope to improve our score by this afternoon.
Back in February, British Airways was hyping its fancy baggage handling system at the new Terminal 5:
The 11 miles of conveyor belts and intelligent baggage carts running on almost 3 miles of rails mean your bag can reach your gate in 15 minutes.
Ha! Tell that to the 15,000 suitcases BA mishandled this weekend. Airline CEO Willie Walsh just sent out yet another apology specifically addressed to the people who are still waiting for their luggage:
A backlog of undelivered bags has built up. This backlog is not affecting the day-to-day operation of the baggage system, and we are making every effort to reunite delayed bags with their owners. We have more than 400 volunteers from across the airline supporting this effort.
That may be, but BA won't make any promises as to when the T5 shitshow will be sorted out. That includes the baggage problems--and the fact that 54 of today's 394 flights have already been cancelled.
0 Comments - Add Yours
by pbb
