Simon English: Temporary turbulence at BA but shares will keep flying

What’s the price to pay for the worst IT failure in UK aviation history? Shares in BA’s parent company IAG fell a measly 3% earlier, and some of that was down to Ryanair warning on air fares.

For context, easyJet, which hasn’t had a massive IT disaster (yet), fell nearly 2%.

So a 3% hit to IAG’s shares for totally ruining the bank holidays of 75,000 passengers amid allegations that the company exploited the customers’ misery by making them pay for expensive upgrades and 62p-a-minute premium phone lines.

The compensation hit could be £150 million, or roughly what BA spends a year on those in-flight snacks that are a bit like peanuts, only not edible.

The PR blow is bad, but short-lived. Some folk are boldly insisting they will never fly BA again, a pledge that will last until the next time they need a cheap flight to Spain and BA seems to be the best offer, if not the only one.

Like many of you, every time I fly Ryanair is the last time I am ever going to fly Ryanair.

Air executives offer the pretence that they operate in a dynamically competitive industry, when in truth what they sell is a utility. We don’t care who provides our water, we just want the taps to work when we turn them.

No one has brand loyalty to BA any more than they have to Severn Trent. We just get on the plane that’s going our way.

The air industry benefits from low expectations. We expect it will delay us, abuse us, overcharge us and lose our luggage. On that score, it tends not to disappoint.