BA Is Shite

BA Is Shite

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The latest news and views on British Airways, the world's "favourite" airline.

Thursday 28 August 2008

Ongoing Problems?

Virgin claim that there are still ongoing problems at BA's T5, BA claim there aren't.

What's the real story?

Feel free to contact me privately if you have a recent story about BA.

Tuesday 19 August 2008

Number 1

Congratulations to Willie Walsh (CEO of BA) for coming top in a survey of the most mentioned FTSE 100 bosses on the internet.

Pity it is for the wrong reasons!

Monday 11 August 2008

Criminal Charges

Three former and one current British Airways executive will be taking the stand in the United Kingdom in September to face charges over their actions in a global price-fixing cartel.

Andrew Crawley current head of sales, Martin George former commercial director, Iain Burns former communications head, and Alan Burnett UK and Ireland sales head, are charged with Price-Fixing, which could see jail terms of up to five years and unlimited fines.

In Britain, the Office of Fair Trading made 'Price-Fixing' a specific criminal charge in 2002. This will be only the second such proceedings of its kind in London.

All four are charged for grievances which took place between 2004 and 2006. All three former execs resigned from the carrier in 2006.

"Four men have today been charged with cartel offences under the Enterprise Act in connection with the OFT's criminal investigation into price-fixing of fuel surcharges for long haul passenger flights," said the Office of Fair Trading in an official statement.

"[They] are charged with having dishonestly agreed with others to make or implement arrangements which directly or indirectly fixed the price for the supply in the United Kingdom of passenger air transport services by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways."

A plea agreement between British Airways and the US Department of Justice which saw the carrier being hit with a US$300 million fine, and immunity refused to ten former and current BA staff.

In this instance, Virgin Atlantic was granted immunity for its actions in the dealings as it was the whistle blower on the case.

The four in the current charge will face a judge on the 24th of September.

Source e-Travel Blackboard

Wednesday 6 August 2008

BA Isn't Working

BA may try to have us believe, in their new advertising campaign, that Terminal 5 is working. However, the same seemingly cannot be said for the airline itself.

The Times reports that British Airways loses more bags and operates more delayed planes than any other major airline in Europe, according to a confidential report seen by The Times.

BA customers were 80% more likely to lose their luggage than average in the first half of 2008. Nine passengers travelling on a typical BA jumbo jet flight between January and June found that their bags were missing when they arrived at their destination.

The research also found that one third of BA's short-haul and medium-haul flights and roughly one third of its long-haul arrivals and departures were at least 15 minutes late this year, well below the European average.

BA can't blame all of that on T5.

Tuesday 5 August 2008

Terminal 5 Is Working

Following on from the disastrous and humiliating opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 earlier this year, BA have decided to try to rebuild its shattered brand by launching a campaign entitled "Terminal 5 Is Working".

BA will try to prove that the terminal is working, by collating daily information on baggage arrival times, flight punctuality and the time it takes incoming passengers to reach arrivals.

It will be very interesting to see these statistics.