Tuesday July 15, 08:15 AM
BA Chiefs Face Terminal 5 Grilling
By Sky News
British Airways shareholders are to finally get the chance to grill the airline's hierarchy following the Heathrow Terminal 5 opening day debacle. Chief executive Willie Walsh and his colleagues are also expected to face questioning over
the level of fuel surcharges at the company's annual meeting.
The London event will also provide the shareholders with the opportunity to air their views on the T5 fiasco.
The £4.3bn Heathrow facility - for BA's exclusive use - suffered a disastrous opening on March 27, with flights cancelled, bags going astray and huge queues building up.
Just about everything that could go wrong did so, with Mr Walsh accepting the blame.
In April, BA announced that operations director Gareth Kirkwood and customer services director David Noyes were leaving the company and linked their departure specifically to the T5 situation.
BA had planned to move most of its long-haul flights to T5 at the end of April, but the move was postponed following the shambolic opening.
The first phase of the long-haul transfers was successfully completed last month, with more flights moving in September and the rest after that.
Last week, heads of Heathrow operator BAA told MPs that T5 was running well now.
But members of the Unite union said that more than 900 bags a day were still going missing at the new terminal.
With the cost of aviation fuel rocketing, BA, as well as other carriers, has been forced to impose a series of fuel surcharges.
Fuel costs are certain to hit BA's profits this year.
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