BA chief executive, Rod Eddington has launched an investigation into last week’s chaos at Heathrow airport and vows to take ‘appropriate action’.
Almost 100 British Airways (BA) flights were cancelled and 10,000 passengers disrupted last week. The airline apologised to customers and said staff shortages were to blame. A claim that the unions refute.
Brendan Gold of the Transport and General Workers’ union said the lack of staff had been the result of a policy to leave vacancies unfilled.
Mervyn Walker, director of UK airports and Peter Read, operations director at Heathrow are potentials for the axe.
A BA pilot said to the Telegraph: “There’s a feeling among the staff that the airline wants a scapegoat and when people want scapegoats they generally find them.”
A cloud looms over the future of BA’s Mike Street, director of customer services. Many believe that his involvement in averting the planned bank holiday strike and his breakthrough negotiations with the unions will have saved him his job, however.
The disruptions are thought to have cost the airline about £5 million. The figures will be confirmed this Friday when BA announce its August traffic figures.
While passengers remain angry, BA staff will be looking forward to further rewards on top of the 8.5% pay rise over three years and £1000 lump sum for attendance that they recently secured.
The airline has agreed to give 17,500 staff two free tickets each to compensate them for stress caused by last week’s chaos. A spokesperson said this was a thank you to staff that were called upon to work ‘harder then usual.’
