[CathayLoyalist2]

BA suffered 351 delays on Sunday about half its schedule out of LHR and 251 on Monday. Friends of ours in Singapore noted that some of BA´s flights back to LHR have been severely delayed probably a knock on from delayed LHR departures.Is there something beneath the surface that is more serious that is now bubbling to the surface? When 50% of your scheduled departures are delayed that is extraordinary. As a spin off from that BA were offering travellers GBP30 not to go into the lounges as they were up to capacity

[christ]

The A350 flight to HK has had numerous delays of over c. a day over the last weeks (787 has been on time except when cancelled for the typhoon).

[SimonS1]

Unfortunately when you run your business without any margin for error, the slightest issue can have an disproportionate impact. That can mean internal factors (not enough tugs, stairs etc at Heathrow, maintenance issues and so on) or external factors like ATC, the coup in Central Africa, typhoons in Hong Kong and so on.

Also in the interests of cost cutting BA has exited lots of experienced staff, meaning when things go wrong there is no-one to take control and clients are left to fend for themselves.

Airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair know how to tightly control every part of the operation, however BA lacks similar management skills.

1 user thanked author for this post.

christ

[onajetplane]

I do wonder though is there a wider issue in the UK at the moment? I say that because I noticed an Easyjet flight BFS-LGW was delayed by over 6 hours this week. If you look at BFS-LGW on flightstats for yesterday, every single flight is delayed – and some are not just short 15mins delays etc. 3h34mins delay is the longest (significant for a flight with a duration of no more than 1hour10mins or so). And a few more have at least 1.5-2hour delays. I don’t recall taking one flight departing a UK airport in the last few months that has taken off on time? Albeit thankfully none have been delayed by more than an hour.

[esselle]

Last week I flew MAN-MAD on IB, and AGP-MAN on EZY.

Both flights boarded on time, departed on time, and landed on time. I cannot fault either carrier; cleanliness, service, staff efficiency and friendliness were all very good indeed.

MAD was clean, quick and efficient. AGP worked perfectly. MAN is an embarrassment. Staff shout at you, wearing hi-viz emblazoned with “Customer Resilience Team” on them. 50 minute wait for baggage. Just scruffy.

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onajetplane

[FormerBA]

There are no fundamental issues in the U.K. beyond the ones known about for some time. Brexit means no EU staff. Heathrow is not staffed with people of Europeans decent as a matter of course. ***edited by BT *** Customer service is not a strength as I discovered on Wednesday.
BA are in a mess and their processes and procedures add complexity and their staff want to avoid contact with passengers whenever and wherever possible boarding is farcical with almost every S/H flight offering free bags checkin and this is taking up enormous level of resources and creating delays. There is then the knock on effect.

It does not surprise me that they face record delays day in and day out. They have little operational expertise at any level

[cwoodward]

FormerBA I have little doubt that your description of UK airports generally poor function is correct.

However I take issue with your “majority appear to be of south Asian descent.Customer service is not a strength” comments.
The comments are racist.

Many of those that you maline have been in the UK for decades and have as much ability re customer service as any other individual. I would suggest also one’s ethnicity in this context is totally irrelevant and that to suggest otherwise is plainly wrong and unpleasant to read.

Customer service is above all about training – clearly the staff are not properly trained nor I would suggest are their managers.

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esselle, AndrewinHK, pdwtrip, RomP, DNAdams, Johnnyg, EasternPedlar

[EasternPedlar]

@cwoodward thank you for calling out FormerBA’s post. I was pretty disgusted when I read it last night, and was going to write a reply this morning. You’ve articulated my thoughts perfectly, so I need not say any more.

[FDOS]

Observation 1 – there are a significant number of SE Asian diaspora working in LHR.

Observation 2 – LHR is not the most customer centric establishment I use

However, correlation is not causation.

The ‘Heathrow’ effect has been observable since I first went through the place in 1978 and I believe it is a non-race learned cultural behaviour.

Manchester AIrport also has a distinctly poor customer culture.

I have encountered many people from SE Asia in customer facing roles over the years and found them to very helpful.

[ViajeroUK]

In previous times when BA have had more than their usual problems I seem to remember appearances/statements from Willie Walsh, then later from Alex Cruz in his famed Hi-Viz vest, but since Sean Doyle became the ‘Boss’ I can’t remember any comments or appearances from him. Is he still Chairman/CEO of BA?

I do spend a fair bit of time away from UK so perhaps I have missed out on Doyle’s appearances.

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esselle

[CathayLoyalist2]

He is conspicuous by his absence

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DannyBoy, esselle

[DannyBoy]

FormerBA – I strongly urge you to watch the Douglas Murray argument on immigration at the Oxford Union on YouTube which he did about 10 years ago (all of his videos interviews and books are excellent). Because of Brexit, it does not prohibit anybody in the EU from applying for a working visa & job.

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cwoodward, AndrewinHK

[cwoodward]

Another long delay this time for UK bound BA passengers ex HKG .

Yesterday’s British Airways flight BA28 to London Heathrow experienced a serious technical issue on take-off was forced to return to Hong Kong immediately after the 2 hours needed to dump fuel The Boeing 787-9 reg G-ZBKA took off from Hong Kong at about midnight HKT yesterday from runway 07R and while climbing to 16,000 ft, the crew alerted ATC about a serious technical issue.

The aircraft is still under maintenance at Hong Kong, The replacement flight,apparently due later today should be operated by another B789 but it seems that passengers are complaining about the lack of information and assistance from BA!

[Author]

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