Facing The Music: MPs Quiz BA Chief

By Sky News SkyNews - Wednesday, May 7 07:16 am

British Airways' boss Willie Walsh will face a tough grilling from MPs today over the Heathrow Terminal 5 fiasco which caused chaos and national embarrassment.

The chiefs of Heathrow operator BAA will also be giving evidence at a specially-arranged sitting of the House of Commons Transport Committee at Westminster.

Before the appearance of Mr Walsh - the BA chief executive - the committee will be questioning BAA chairman Sir Nigel Rudd and BAA chief executive Colin Matthews.

The £4.3bn building opened disastrously on March 27, with dozens of flights cancelled, the baggage system breaking down and huge queues.

It was several days before BA was able to run a full service from T5, which had been officially opened by the Queen on March 14.

The shambolic opening led Mr Walsh to announce that the planned April 30 transfer of nearly all BA's long-haul services to T5 was being postponed to June, with the possibility of the complete move not being fully implemented until October.

Two top BA chiefs have paid the penalty for the T5 debacle.

Last month the airline announced that operations director Gareth Kirkwood and the customer services director David Noyes would be "leaving the company" and linked their departures specifically to the T5 situation.

MPs are likely to ask Mr Walsh about these two departures, particularly after the BA chief executive had said he took responsibility for T5 and that there was no merit in apportioning blame.

The committee will also want to know from BA and BAA just how ready the two companies were to open the new facility, given the considerable misgivings that staff had in advance.

• Email Story
• IM Story
• Printable View
• Blog This
• Post a Comment

Recommend this article

Sponsored Links

(What’s this?)