The Professional Pilots Rumour website
"'British Airways has not delivered and we need to deliver,' he [Willie
Walsh] said. 'I am accepting responsibility, the buck stops with me.' Will
he resign or forgo his big fat bonus? No way Jose!!"
"Yep welcome to 21st century Britain where the country's infrastructure
is seen solely as a way to extract large profits from the public. No-one
thinks that having an affordable, organised, well run transport system might
actually benefit the country as a whole. Short-sighted greed prevails! I
feel sorry for the poor sods caught up in this charade."
"After 37 years with BA why was I surprised? We all sat around waiting
for the inevitable to happen...I am absolutely embarrassed to be part of
what was once a great company and is now a laughing stock..."
"As a BA employee at the 'back end', this whole episode sucks, but it
just doesn't surprise either me or my colleages as this has been a disaster
waiting to happen! The baggage handlers identified a few system glitches
during the trials but as usual with BA management their concerns were
ignored, (we get paid to manage - you get paid to do as we say)."
"The folk at BAA should take a short ride down to St Pancras
International rail station to see how a 21st century terminal should be
done. Tasteful, efficient, with only selected quality retail. Today's
airport terminals are little more than downmarket shopping malls."
"Oh dear, oh dear - another own goal for BA.....Or BAA? Or both??
Whatever, the CEOs should be forced to resign over this ridiculous affair. "
"When I left work late on Wednesday I was so excited. 34 aircraft had
been put in place and the equipment move was well under way. Thank you to
everyone who helped that night. Even the bus journey back to the staff car
park was a joy for once as we drove past and saw all the tails in place
ready for the next day. I couldn't wait to get back into work. Christmas had
come early and I had a new train set to play with. Walked back into utter
chaos and instead of being peacefully asleep now, I'm sitting here watching
the news feeling throughly ashamed and miserably disappointed. My heart goes
out to all the staff, they have tried to do their best with very little or
no training under extreme pressure. My thanks to all at the Base. Sorry for
dumping so many aircraft at you again, at such short notice, again. But most
of all my extreme sorrow goes out to all passengers."
"Half the problem, methinks, is that BA & BAA set themselves up for a
PR own goal from the outset. By putting out statements ranting about how
seamless and efficient the place will be from day one etc etc, they are
effectively writing PR cheques that were always highly likely to bounce.
'Promise low, deliver high' - basic project meeting stuff. Considering they
know practically all of the variables, it really is amazing it appears to
have gone so wrong."
"It was notable that on the trial I attended on January 31, there was
hardly any baggage involvement. You could, I suppose, say it was authentic:
I checked in a bag and never saw it again! The tags put on the bags at
check-in looked like the usual barcode tags, rather than the RFID-chip tags
that I've read about. There was no trialling of obtaining baggage on
arrival, so the impression given was that the baggage system wasn't yet
ready. Perhaps it was "completed" too late for full trialling and
testing."
I can only echo the sentiments of the comments above. I retired from BA last Summer after 39 years of loyal service because I felt I could no longer toe a party line for which I had no respect. What is sadder, is that I walked away with no proper farewell and without a backward glance - my choice!
Although not all the problems of T5 are the fault of BA, it is very obvious that no lessons have been learnt from the appalling damage done during the "Ayling regime" when BA was turned into a marketing airline and people, technology and, worst of all, quality training, became unimportant. This latest debacle will quite possibly turn out to be BA's worst and most costly mistake as it has damaged not only the company, its staff and its passengers, but the reputation of the UK as a whole.
K Warner, Woking,