BAA 's Chief Declines Bonus

 

UK Airports, most significantly Heathrow, are slowly working through their backlog and returning to normal capacity following a week of frustration due to a few inches of snow that caught airport authorities unprepared. Planes were grounded, leading to tens of thousands of passengers being stranded at the airport with no information as to when would be able to get to their destinations.

This understandably caused problems at what is traditionally the busiest week of the year for airports and airlines.

Warmer temperatures arriving in the middle of the week helped to melt the snow and ice on the runways and allowed for crews to salt airfields, de-ice planes and eventually get the planes in the air once more.

Colin Matthews, the chief executive of BAA declined to comment on his reasons for turning down the Government's offer of military help, but promised a full enquiry into the state of readiness of their airports - ‘When we've got every passenger where he wants to be and she wants to be, then we will crawl over every aspect of these last few days,' he commented.

As a result of widespread critisism of BAA's performance this week, Matthews has declined his year-end bonus.

Aviation chiefs have also warned certain airlines about their "unacceptable treatment of passengers", with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) writing to "a few airlines", both UK-based and overseas-based, saying they had not met their EU laid-down obligations to customers, including rights such as refunds, meals, hotel accommodation and telephone calls.

The CAA declined to name the airlines concerned, stating that the matter was "ongoing".