Perhaps I should have said it is a health related issue. The health of our passengers specifically, but to a lesser extent that of our crews as well. As SC said, if required due to extreme heat, i.e. >30C for pax boarding, it will have to be APU on and Packs running at max, but if we can avoid the necessity of this, then surely we should do it.
It is ironic that a union should be attempting to block a measure that may make the working environment of it's members less unpleasant. A forward thinking union would be encouraging it's members to do this sort of thing - it costs nothing and makes their members lives less unpleasant. I think BASSA is being a little oversensitive here, though that is perhaps understandable, but it does not reflect well upon their reps that they cannot rise above the emotion and promote this as a good idea.
This is aimed at being a preventative measure and as I explained in a previous post is not really going to do a great deal in the Gulf in the middle of summer. It will make a difference on a sunny 25C day at LHR and a great deal of other places around the roue network. Acting to prevent the temperature rising and avoiding the requirement to unnecessarily cool an aircraft is just good sense. Making this an SOP will not make a difference on many turn rounds but on many others it will, sometimes at the end of a long sector it is easier to just do these things rather than make a judgement call which others may disagree with.
If as SC suggests this is only a matter of 100-300 quid to cool an aircraft, lets just look at that for a moment. Lets make a few conservative assumptions. BA have 50 747s some of which are in engineering lets say 40 are flying the line. Lets further assume that this is only an issue for 4 months of the year and that there is only 1 turn around per aircraft per day. So the cost involved is 40x120x100 at the lower end or x300 at the higher end. So that is between £480,000 and £1,440,000 per year to be saved - Just on the jumbo fleet alone. We now often shut down engines while taxying in which saves just a few minutes of fuel burn but it all adds up over many sectors and many aircraft. Now that is not a great deal of money in airline terms but it is a significant saving to be gained at no cost to anyone. It is also a carbon efficient way of doing business, which in modern times is important.
I can understand BASSA being prickly over any initiative from the company at the moment but this one does border on the silly.
Welcome back SC, I may not agree with everything you say but you bring a welcome contrary view and argue your point well.