British Airways loses more bags and operates more delayed flights than any other big airline in Europe, a study has found.
Nine passengers on a typical BA jumbo jet find that their bags are missing when they arrive at their destination. BA’s performance worsened last year, with 26.5 bags lost per 1000 passengers, compared with 23 in 2006.
The airline was 50 per cent more likely to lose a bag than the average European airline, which mislaid 16.6 bags per 1000 passengers. Only Air Portugal, which is less than a fifth of the size of BA, lost a higher proportion of bags.
BA also had one of the worst records for punctuality, with more than a third of short-haul and medium-haul flights and almost half of long-haul arriving at least 15 minutes late last year. More than 15 million BA passengers were delayed.
The study was carried out by the Association of European Airlines, which also found that Heathrow had the highest level of delays of any airport for flights within Europe, with 35.5 per cent delayed last year. Gatwick was second-worst, with 30.2 per cent. The best was Brussels, with 16.9 per cent.
The association represents most of the larger airlines but not budget operators, such as Ryanair and easyJet. Budget airlines tend to lose fewer bags than traditional carriers, such as BA, because they do not offer connecting services through hub airports.
A BA spokesman said: “While our performance at the vast majority of global airports remains good, we continue to experience a wide variety of difficulties at our main home at Heathrow.
“Although Heathrow continues to suffer from a very stretched infrastructure running at almost double capacity, we also accept that on occasions our own levels of service have not been as high as we would like.
“We very much expect that our baggage performance will improve once we settle into our new home at Heathrow Terminal 5, which opens at the end of March.”
The Times
By: SHAMROCK321 - 22nd February 2008 at 18:34
BA inflight service is certainly among the best and from what Ive heard about food, lounges etc they appear to be a great airline. Ive only flown a short DUB-LGW-DUB with them.
LGW seems to be somwhat efficent but LHR is a complete nightmare for BA ops.
By: Jon Taylor - 22nd February 2008 at 16:43
I just could not agree more.
ba.crap 🙂
i’ll be posting a trip report soon on it.
The WORSE airline
i’ve ever been on!
Jon.
By: OneLeft - 21st February 2008 at 12:58
Not amongst the BALPA members anyhow…
Very good Ren, very good.
1L.
By: Ren Frew - 21st February 2008 at 12:17
Ah but don’t worry, according to WW and co every problem in the world will be solved when T5 opens next month. Who knows, there may even be world peace.
1L.
Not amongst the BALPA members anyhow…
By: OneLeft - 21st February 2008 at 12:15
Ah but don’t worry, according to WW and co every problem in the world will be solved when T5 opens next month. Who knows, there may even be world peace.
1L.
By: Bmused55 - 20th February 2008 at 13:21
It is BA who loose the bags! Its because of delayed flights and lack of staff.
BAA only run the baggage system they dont do the actual baggage handling.
I have first hand expierence of it when I worked for BA in EDI last year for a number of weeks, passengers litterally had hours to transfer and they would still arrive without baggage.
I’m seeing another pattern.
EDI, LGW and LHR, all BAA airports.
Mind you, I’ve flown in and out of EDI more times than I can remember, never had a bag lost. Last flight on BA was with a 732 in 1997.
Perhaps BA tightened the purse strings just a tad too much?
By: sekant - 20th February 2008 at 12:12
News from this morning – T4 on its knees again, all bagage system blocked up, passengers cant check bags in. Who is supposed to get T4 after BA transfer to T5??
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7254455.stm
Passengers planning to fly from Heathrow’s Terminal Four are facing severe delays because of problems with baggage handling software.
BA, the main airline based at the terminal, is warning its customers that they may not be able to travel if they have luggage to be checked in.
The problem began on Tuesday. Airport operator BAA said it is working as hard as it can to repair the system.
It said passengers should check with their airline before setting out.
The problem has restricted passengers to two items of hand luggage.
Long-haul customers
A BA spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to our customers for the disruption as a result of the failure of the airport’s baggage system in Terminal 4”.
We are hoping that everything will be sorted out soon
BAA spokesman
The terminal handles baggage for the airline’s long-haul customers flying in World Traveller (economy) and World Traveller Plus (premium economy) cabins.
BAA said it had technicians working all night to try to fix the software problem. “We are hoping that everything will be sorted out soon,” a spokesman said.
Passengers are being asked to consider checking in fewer items of hold luggage.
BA said passengers due to fly from T4 are eligible for a refund, can re-book to a different destination or travel on a later date.
It has published full details of the options available to customers affected on its website.
By: SHAMROCK321 - 20th February 2008 at 09:51
It is BA who loose the bags! Its because of delayed flights and lack of staff.
BAA only run the baggage system they dont do the actual baggage handling.
I have first hand expierence of it when I worked for BA in EDI last year for a number of weeks, passengers litterally had hours to transfer and they would still arrive without baggage.
By: Bmused55 - 20th February 2008 at 07:56
Comes from being based at LHR with an antiquated baggage delivery system!
Its not BA itself that looses the bags, its BAA or whoever they subcontract to run the baggage system.
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February 20, 2008 at 4:10 am