Monday April 14, 05:49 PM
BA boss says 'no intention' of resigning over terminal fiasco
By Odile Duperry
 |
LONDON (AFP) - British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) chief executive Willie Walsh said Monday he had "no intention" of resigning over the disastrous opening of London Heathrow airport's new Terminal 5.
BA has exclusive use of T5 but the multi-billion-pound facility has been plagued by severe logistical problems since its launch last month.
"The idea of resigning has never entered my mind (and) I have no intention of doing so," he told foreign media correspondents in London.
"I do not believe in walking away from problems -- I believe in sorting problems out.
"I've loved my time in the airline industry because it's such a challenging industry and I have always said (that) I enjoy challenges.
"It (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) 's a challenge that I intend to address, so I am very much determined to make T5 a success and I won't be going anywhere."
He also revealed that the transfer of longhaul flight operations to Terminal 5 would be phased in from June -- and could last until the end of the October at the latest.
T5 cost airports operator BAA about 4.3 billion pounds (8.7 billion dollars, 5.6 billion euros) to build.
The facility opened on March 27 but has been blighted by logistical problems that centred around the baggage handling system.
Walsh stressed Monday that there were mistakes made by British Airways and BAA in the opening of Terminal 5.
"It is clear that not all of the problems were of BA's making," Walsh said.
"However, all of the customers are BA customers, and I don't think they want to hear me standing up and try to blame somebody else.
"We have got to work with BAA to get them to address the issues that are under their control. As much as I would like to point the finger at somebody else, it would not be very constructive.
He added that it was "better ... to demonstrate that we are working together to resolve the outstanding issues."
Almost all of BA's Terminal 4 long-haul services had been due to switch to Heathrow's new Terminal 5 on April 30.
It was not until April 8 that British Airways was able to offer a full shorthaul flight schedule in and out of the terminal.
Thousands of passengers lost their bags and hundreds of flights had to be delayed or cancelled because of the T5 debacle, which has cost the airline at least 16 million pounds, according to its own estimates.
"We have worked very hard with our colleagues and the operator (BAA) to address the problems," Walsh added on Monday.
"I am pleased to say we have been operating on a normal (shorthaul) schedule for the past seven days."
In addition, Walsh said he hoped that BA's new subsidiary, OpenSkies, would begin flying from New York to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in June, but gave no specific details.
The OpenSkies airline, which was created to take advantage of the EU-US "open skies" deal to free up the key transatlantic aviation market, will offer daily flights from New York to Europe.
|
|
|
Send Article by Email
Send Article by IM
Blog This with Y! 360
Printable View
