2 BA executives resign over Heathrow T5 fiasco

Posted by frann on April 15th, 2008 at 01:21pm

Gareth Kirkwood, director of operations, and David Noyes, director of customer services have left BA as the fiasco at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 continues.

Transferring 96% of BA flights to a new terminal with new systems which had only been tested in a dry run which was at nowhere near the same levels of throughput was an elementary mistake, and it is right that someone should be held responsible. However, whether the gentlemen in question are personally responsible for this, is open to question.

It seems incredible that this decision was taken by anyone other than the CEO himself. And even if he didn’t make the decision himself, he must have been aware of it, and also how unlikely a successful outcome would be.

In my opinion, the CEO himself must take the blame and step down. To allow such an obviously high risk strategy to go ahead was almost criminally irresponsible. Willie Walsh has repeatedly said that “the buck stops with me,” and also stated that he would not be scapegoating any of his staff. It’s time he stood by his word.

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