Rod Eddington British Airways (BA) Chief Executive has decided against sacking any senior executives despite indications that heads would roll following the August bank holiday flights fiasco.
Almost 100 BA flights were cancelled and 10,000 passengers disrupted over the busy bank holiday weekend. The airline apologised to customers and said staff shortages were to blame. A claim that the unions refute.
Eddington who has launched an investigation into the chaos that ensued vowed to ‘take appropriate action’.
BA’s Mike Street, director of customer services looked to be vulnerable as a scapegoat. 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.
Latest reports from the Telegraph today would appear to show that Street and other senior executives including Mervyn Walker, director of UK airports and Peter Read, operations director at Heathrow are in the clear.
A BA source revealed to the paper that Eddington had already decided that the problems were: “Caused by many things coming together and were not the fault of any individual.”
The beleaguered airline has announced that it plans to cut 966 flights over the next three months in response to staff shortages.
