Terminal 4 is a disaster. I’ve also had the misfortune to go through as a passenger in the last week. An hour waiting for bags, last minute stand change from Victors toWhiskeys with little old ladies trying to run half a mile to the bus at -10. Disaster.
The problem is that the operation is inadequately resourced. I can turn an airplane round as quick as you like, but if there’s no fuel, steps, buses, wheelchairs, chocks, ground power, airbridge, dispatcher, catering, highlift, stand guidance, toilet truck, baggage handlers, then I can’t do anything.
The terminal should be run like the pits at Silverstone, everything there, waiting, poised to make the turnround. That way stand occupancy is reduced to the absolute minimum, and the throughput of the terminal can be optimized. It’s not as if the aircraft arrive unexpectedly, most of them took off yesterday.
It’s just down to the amount of soldiers required and the tactical expertise of the planners. Forget the plan you wrote last night, rip it up, the plan is now, the problem is yours. Sadly BA are reducing the number of soldiers to protect the jobs of the generals and emperors. They are using exactly the wrong policies for a problem that’s rapidly getting out of control, 180 degrees away from the solution.
This is a manifest failure of Customer Service and Operations. That particular Emperor has proved his ineptitude and should go, quickly.
My sympathies to all who suffer this cataclysm everyday, but those of us who have to operate in this environment have just about given up on the management. They are wistfully daydreaming, Micawber like, waiting for T5 to open. They’re off the plot.
I’ll take on the opposition anyday. It’s my management I can’t beat!