Heathrow T5′s first day hit by cancelled flights, strike, protest and brawl
Why can this country not do big infrastructure projects with embarrassing itself?
The opening of a £4.3billion terminal hailed as the future of air travel turned into chaos yesterday as 70 staff held an unofficial strike and 63 flights were cancelled. British Airways bosses were humiliated as thousands of travellers faced huge delays and lost luggage at Heathrow's Terminal 5.
The fact that the new Heathrow Terminal 5 has been such a disaster hardly bodes well for the Olympics. I find it astonishing they have opened this terminal without ensuring that everything they could possible do, to ensure to operated smoothly, was done. I only hope the Pr4esident of France was not forced to use it!
Heathrow T5's first day hit by cancelled flights, strike, protest and brawl - Mirror.co.uk
2 Responses »
Leave a Response
Entries(RSS)
Until now, almost all headline getting large project failures have been in the hands of the government - the air traffic control computer system at Swanwick springs to mind.
BA has a lot to lose & should have had its act in gear, but its alleged mediocre salary policy seems to have backfired on them.
BAA appears not to care less - no doubt because the UK taxpayer has subsidised it all & their (BAA's) Spanish masters must be laughing all the way to the Abbey National.
T5 was built on budget and on time and basically works well,a triumph by todays standards.As BAA will in due course confirm.
The problems will be shown to be caused by BA.
Inspite of endless dry runs,focus groups and mission statements they failed to grasp that over the years(in order to reduce costs)they have got rid of all the experienced grey hairs in management.Those grey hairs left on the shopfloor are regarded with contempt by BA senior management as clearly lacking in ambition,so their views are ignored by the degree strewn but practically barren management.
What they forget,everytime,is that many folks like to do a basic job well and shun promotion,they do however know their job backwards.
The planning and resourcing was abysmal and heads must roll,including the pilot turned chief exec Willie Walsh.It was his defining moment and all happened during his watch.