Ghost flights….

Confronted with some of the most horrific PR any organisation could imagine – why is nobody surprised that pax who could fly today have elected not to use Heathrow.

I would imagine you would have more fun having a mini break in Fallujah than entering the confines of that wretched BAA enclave.

Because they're a bunch of tossers, that's why :yuk:

spanishfleaBecause the 3rd runway would almost certainly not make a big enough differance.

In the first year of it being open - Yes, then it would. BUT once the runway if fully operational, BAA will sign up more international flights and BA will transfer more/all from LGW and so the two main tarmac strips will be as fully occupied as ever. YES the third will provide some capacity but not that much because the airport will be aiming for over capacity once again.

The one glimmer of hope is that enough people will have been so irritated by EGLL and it's useless managers that the overall demand for the field will have dropped and it will then be working within capacity and a reasonable margin of reserve. So ... it looks as IF BA and BAA have been planning very carefully (once again).

It's taken a couple of days of fog to expose LHR for the fraud it really is ..... not the World's Favourite Airport but an antiquated tip that really doesn't deserve to be included in anybody's travel plans any more. Shabby carpets, ceilings falling down, endless walkways added to connect the dots, eternal queues, congested pickup points and a security nightmare with one-tunnel access / exit to traffic chaos on the M4.
As previously mentioned this weeks chaos has been caused because Heathrow is operating at near capacity even under normal conditions - there are no other competitive hubs operating with only two runways. BA has greedily put all it's eggs in the Heathrow basket over the years and now pays the price. The only development at LHR has been to add more terminals to an already congested airport that has no decent road or rail connections to the outside world (No! I don't want to go into London nor sit in a traffic jam on the M25) Successive governments have proposed all sorts of grandiose alternative airports and done precisely NOTHING.
Any solutions? Ban everything under 200 seats? Build two more runways immediately? Connect Staines to the mainline rail services at Reading? Make LHR a domestic airport only and develop one of the RAF or USAF fields as an International hub?
There's lots of competition these days and CDG; AMS; BRU and FRA all get fog but they don't need to "close the shop" as they planned and made their investment in their own airports years ago .....

they cant help the fog but ofter the lack of information can be blamed on them!
I was stuck in LHR a year ago with lots of cancelations ,with out any info from BA!
So a kicking ,NO ,but keep waiting people informed!

Neil

seems to be some spare seats left on ryanair STN-PIK for saturday and sunday, thought they'd have been snapped up. maybe people are too scared to take the risk of booking up and being cancelled again.

Over the past few years, there has been a steady decline in the standard of news reporting from the BBC. What was once considered the crème of broadcasting now seems to resort more and more to sensationalism and inaccuracy in it's reporting on any subject.

NG708

Perhaps it might be better to give the pax the BA phone line - or would you rather we all just give the BBC duty officer 'a kicking' instead?

English is my second language but I can see the pax was not inciting violence but using the richness of the English langauge to express a probably greater deserved displeasure that you can justify sitting on your sofa watching whinging about how the media report that displeasure.

Could have sworn the guy was criticising BAA (rather than BA) after complaining about being kept hanging around in the freezing tents...
Maybe I've got fog in m'ears?
:O

Here is the SLF concerned :hmm:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/u...toryid=6201719

Nope, These are companies that deserve to fail
 

Nonsense - the travelling public have been almost surreally calm in the face of an air transport system that is frankly broken. "BA should be given a good kicking" - which, let's face it is pretty run of the mill English as it is actually spoke - is barely worthy of comment.

As I have said before a tedious number of times, airlines have a uniquely confrontational relationship with their customers. It is only their utter power over them that lets them get away with it. Their miserable, capital-destroying, financial performance is a direct result.

Fortunately, thanks to the likes of the much-loathed (by the legacy industry) Ryanair, the clock is ticking.

If I buy a £500 suit and the store screws up the tailoring, I don't even have to argue - the store just says "sorry, we'll fix it". If it's an airline, it's just the beginning of my doomed fight for a halfway reasonable response. And in the meantime the airline will trash my life. These are companies that deserve to fail.

thanks,offa you've finally brought the debate to the point I was trying to make as the original OP -ie that BA/BAA are a national joke with the heady amalgamation of mismanagement and incompetence that culminates in the cancellation of the short haul network even though the aircraft are technically capable of autoland/cat3a/b landings;anyone who lives in the regions route via the near continent to fly further afield -I speak from experience.I do feel very much for those stuck/spectacularly inconvenienced by this.b/rgds

Enticement to violence?

The BBC are only reporting what is being said. They might not, on this occasion, have found someone who said "It all went well and I am buying BA shares from now on" but they will seek balance. They have to because that is in their book of rules. (No I do not work for the BBC).

Perhaps, if BA and BAA had done a better job of informing people about the delay and looking after them, the BBC would not have found anyone to say this? Besides, as stated by Algy, it really is a rather mild syaing and one that children use in the play ground every day.

Inform the public and they wil be OK and I add my voice to those that are surprised we have not seen really bad behaviour thus far.

Companies that deserve to fail...
 

I think that these pax feel the same way for a few days that I do about the big supermarket chains all year long, every year.

Hugely powerful businesses driven only by providing the cheapest goods regardless of their quality or the cost to our society... Companies that don't care about anything but their revenue... People who probably can't spell 'quality' any more, much less might understand what it means or why civilised society developed the concept...

Regardless of the very unusual met conditions, having people staying overnight in marquees in the depth of winter is not a mark of a first world country...

BAA
 

If the comment was directed at the BAA I do not think it would be going too far to suggest it is long overdue. Their security is a joke, the whole of the airside operation is woefully mismanaged, and it seems all they are interested in is keeping pax in the shops as long as possible.
High time the airports were split up and BAA was put out of its (and everyone else's) misery.

Yeah thats right because Ryan Air would just say... sorry thats life.. act of god, sort yourselves out and no you cant have your money back. If you want customer service fly another airline.

I have watched some of the news 24 reports and the reporters seem most disappointed when they speak to passengers that say, well we have had a really nice lady looking after us, we were given meal vouchers for a hot breakfast in the hotel we were provided. And now we have just been given sandwiches and drinks in the marquee put up to keep us out of the rain.

Lets see what has Ryan done for the passengers that have had their flights cancelled. The BBC hasnt mentioned that all Lufthansa and Air France flights were cancelled and what about other airline cancellations. Id like to see Ryan Air operate out of Heathrow.

BA isnt perfect but the staff are working very hard and do a lot more than low cost airlines during disruption. There are a lot of volunteers giving up their free time to help passengers.

As for the BAA with regards security matters and baggage system problems... many of us here could write a book. Especially those passengers who have had their bags miss their flights or have had them lost due to the baggage tunnel repeatedly failing between T4 and the central area. Im not going to mention numbers but pick a number with 4 zeros and thats how many bags need repatriating due to baggage problems in one day over the weekend. The BAA monopoly has to stop, its a crime that they can keep increasing landing fees and provide a shocking infrastucture to operate with.

Yes, the Airport needs a good kicking, as does BA, as do pilots who call passengers "Self Loading Freight".

For a ****ing start, why the **** reservations people ask for your phone number and/or email address?

I've lost count of the number of times I've checked out of hotels and got myself to an airport in good time, only to find that the flight has been delayed for up to twelve hours. Why couldn't they let me know, so I could do something else with my time? They seem to be oh so ready to contact me to try and bump me if they have overbooked!

The behaviour of major airlines under these circumstances really annoys me because they assume you will patiently stand around for hours waiting to climb into a dirty aluminium tube crewed by sullen morons who will eventually attempt to take you somewhere near where you want to go.

Anyway Merry Christmas to all.

Are you suggesting there is more journalistic integrity in only interviewing people who say nice things?:eek:

"Giving someone a good kicking" is hardly a mild thing to say. Just stop and think for a moment what it means.

Algy - while we can be quite scathing of some aspects of BA, I have to say that the facts in this case have been horrendously mis-reported, by most of the news sources around. If you take your suit back, it can be replaced. If a flight is cancelled, you cannot re-make the time, try comparing eggs with eggs. Look at other service industries (not industries that supply products).

When I had to divert for very good reasons one day, which were very well explained by the Captain and crew, some passengers were very understanding. A vocal minority were real gits, rude and very agressive. These are the type of people the newscasters interview, regardless of the facts, and they misrepresent the facts too because they are aggreived.

If BA was run by Richard Branson, the same facts would be reported very differently. BA need to learn that, but I fear they never will.