BBC: BA 'mulls Heathrow compensation'

BA 'mulls Heathrow compensation'

August 15, 2006

BA is to consider seeking compensation from airports operator BAA after security measures forced it to cancel hundreds of flights from Heathrow.

BA boss Willie Walsh has attacked BAA's management, saying it had "no adequate plan" to deal with the emergency.

BA has cancelled 700 Heathrow flights since Thursday after requirements to check in hand luggage caused delays.

Despite the restrictions being eased, more than 40 BA flights were cancelled on Tuesday.

'Not back to normal'

BAA said the easing of restrictions - allowing passengers to take one small item of hand luggage - did not constitute a "return to normal" and passengers should still expect delays.

BA has cancelled 20% of its flights out of Heathrow and 11 Gatwick services due to depart on Tuesday.

Ryanair cancelled eight flights from Stansted, claiming that less than half the airport's security desks were manned early this morning.

BAA admitted there were delays at security checkpoints but said it believed enough staff were now in place to deal with passenger numbers.

BA and Ryanair have fiercely attacked BAA's handling of the situation at Heathrow and other airports, saying the company should have been better prepared for the situation and hired extra staff.

"BAA had no plan to keep the airport functioning properly," Mr Walsh said in an article in the Daily Mirror.

The resulting queues resembled a "bad dream at Disneyland", he added.

BA said it would consider what action to take over areas where "it was held back from operating" once its services had returned to normal.

The hand luggage ban on flights from the UK was eased on Monday after the government announced that the terror threat to the UK had been downgraded from "critical" to "severe".

Who pays?

BA declined to be drawn directly on the issue of compensation but said it would be looking at a number of "areas" relating to service issues over the past few days.

"All our focus and resources are on getting our operation back on track at Heathrow," said a BA spokesman.

"Once we have done that we will sit down and have those sort of discussions.

"I am sure we will consider whether there were areas where we could have operated but were held back from operating."

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has called for extra police, or even troops, to be called in to help with security checks.

Analysts have speculated that lost revenues from flight cancellations could cost BA more than £40m, the amount it lost as a result of last summer's strike by baggage handlers.

The carrier has been forced to use trucks to ferry baggage left behind at Heathrow to destinations such as Manchester, Edinburgh and Frankfurt as well as using space in its own cargo aircraft.