As somebody who has spent the last 36 hours working at Heathrow repatriating passengers (sorry customers) by ground transportation who had to return from whence they came because they could not get to where they wanted to go I feel a bit qualified in commenting.
Most of them did not blame BA, most of them did not blame BAA and most of them did not blame God for the fog.
What they all said was a shambles was the organisation and lack of information - even though the situation was very fluid they weren't being told anything. Knowing that your Christamas is definitely screwed up - bad as it is - is not as bad than somebody either giving false hope or deliberatley giving out false information to 'keep them quiet'.
The attitude of the BAA/HAL MD on Radio 4 tonight made me want to puke - when asked if the fog had damaged Haethrows reputation internationally as so many international flights had been cancelled he casually said that it was, in effect, a minor problem and as it was only domestic flights and short haul European flights that had been affected. I assume he does not know that Europe is international!
The multitudes of customers who had to transit down to Gatwick to make onward flights will no doubt have a view of Heathrow competence which will differ from his. Every one that transits via a Europen airport in the future instead of LHR is a fare lost. They (BAA), and all LHR airlines, staff and 'suppliers', cannot afford to p*ss off one passenger!
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