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Analysis: Christmas airline chaos – 11 Jan 2007

Unloading baggageBritish Airways and its passengers suffered disproportionately from the fog that blanketed southeast Britain before Christmas, cancelling more than 800 flights from Heathrow as air traffic control limited landings.

But how did that result in thousands of bags remaining unclaimed in the first week of January?

The airline blamed a combination of difficulties. A baggage system failure on December 17 was compounded by flight cancellations and delays caused by the fog on December 20-22, and a further baggage system breakdown on December 29.

BA said security measures had slowed efforts to sort things out. “Each bag had to be checked,” said a spokesman. “Passengers who wanted to collect their bags rather than wait for a courier had to be escorted by security.”

About 4,500 bags were still at Terminal 4 late last week, some having been delayed since Christmas. BA said it was shifting 3,000 a day and aimed to clear the backlog by last weekend.

But if 20,000-25,000 bags were misplaced over the period and 3,000 could be moved per day, why did the backlog take three weeks to clear?

BAA said the problem was BA’s. “The baggage belt was down for one hour on December 17 and the problem on December 29 caused minimal disruption,” said a spokesman.

BA and the Transport and General Workers Union deny that unofficial industrial action by baggage handlers lay at the root of the chaos.

TGWU national secretary for air transport Brendan Gold said: “BA workers are doing their best to reunite passengers with their luggage. There is anger among the handlers that the finger is being pointed at them.”

A union spokeswoman added: “The problems were entirely due to the fog, compounded by a system breakdown. There is no suggestion of industrial action.”

However, an industry source insisted otherwise, blaming an unofficial go-slow over the introduction of new work practices.

The denials may be genuine. But the union could not admit to unofficial action without facing legal consequences, and BA would risk a confrontation with staff if it blamed its baggage handlers. The airline already faces a challenge from cabin crew, who are balloting on strike action that could begin late this month if there is no agreement on pay rates and sickness procedures.

BA is changing the way its baggage handlers work in preparation for the move to Terminal 5, and introduced the changes over Christmas.

A spokesman conceded: “This is not the major reason for the problem. Staff have been consulted on the changes and all signed up to them.”

The criticism of BA may have been out of proportion. The airline dealt with almost one million passengers and their baggage over Christmas – about 75,000 items a day. A maximum of 25,000 BA passengers suffered some kind of luggage problem – barely 2.5%.

But the airline has suffered a fresh blow to its image of reliability and, more importantly, the affair may be a taste of turmoil to come as BA prepares to move to Terminal 5 in March 2008.

 

A foggy issue

The severity of the disruption during the fog was caused by the volume of traffic at Heathrow, which routinely operates at peak capacity.

Landing aircraft usually approach the airport at three-mile intervals. Because of the fog, air traffic control body NATS extendeds the distance to six miles, halving the amount of traffic and hitting BA hard as it accounts for 40% of Heathrow flights. 

Aircraft land using their instruments and can do so safely in reduced visibility. The problem is on the runway, where an aircraft may be slow moving off.

There are two possible solutions to Heathrow’s vulnerability to fog. One would be to increase capacity by building another runway. The Government and BAA are committed to doing that by 2017, if they can bypass environmental objections and beat off local opposition.

The other would be to cut Heathrow traffic, which would outrage airlines, business and consumers. In the meantime, when the area suffers fog, flights will be disrupted.

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