Bungling BA Loss Leader for Passengers Baggage

By Ray Massey

BRITISH AIRWAYS lost more bags than any European airline in the last three months of 2007 and is almost last in the latest league table of carriers for poor punctuality and lost baggage.

More than 1.14million of its passengers bags went missing, according to the Association of European Airlines (AEA).

One BA passenger in every 37 lost baggage last year as chaos at Londons Heathrow Airport including a security scare and its aftermath and a string of baggage system failures contributed to the problem.

T h e n e w s c a m e a s B A announced pre-tax profits of Pounds 788million for the nine months to December up 35 per cent, putting BA on track for its biggest annual profits.

The annual AEA report said that for every 1,000 BA passengers who flew with British Airways last year, 26 bags went missing. Last year BA carried more than 43million passengers, said the report.

On delayed baggage, BA was ranked 25th out of 26 major European airlines, with only TAP Air Portugal worse.

For the last three months to the end of December British A i r w a y s w a s t h e w o r s t performer out of 26 airlines losing 225,549 bags. Across Europe last year, more than six million bags went missing among more than 377million passengers. The report said 16.6 bags in every thousand went missing about one in every 60.

Airline bmiBritish Midland gave its figures for the first time and also fared badly on baggage, finishing in 20th place out of 26. It lost 17 bags per thousand passengers meaning one passenger in 58 had a problem.

Over the year bmi lost 88,901 bags belonging to its 5.22million passengers in 2007. Much of the lost baggage is eventually re-united with passengers but some is sold off at auction if they cannot be traced.

Across Europe, the AEA says about 85 per cent of baggage is t r a c e d a n d d e l i v e r e d t o customers within 48 hours.

Also faring badly on lost baggage were Air France lost 17.6 bags per 1,000 passengers, Germanys Lufthansa lost 15.8, Italys Alitalia 19.7, and KLM Royal Dutch airlines 19.7 per thousand.

O n p u n c t u a l i t y B r i t i s h Airways fared little better, although its performance was undermined by most of its planes using Heathrow, which suffers frequent logjams as it struggles to cope with an overflow of flights for its four overworked terminals.

Nearly half of BAs long-haul flights arrived late, with only 56.2 per cent arriving on time. Again, that put BA near the bottom of the rankings, with o n l y TA P P o r t u g a l a n d SpanAir faring worse.

Four out of ten BA long-haul flights departed late, with only 61.5 per cent leaving on time. A delayed flight is one that leaves or arrives 15 minutes or more after its scheduled time.

On short and medium-haul flights around a third of BA flights were late to arrive or depart. Only 64.7 per cent of arrivals came in on time, compared to 67.5 per cent of departures leaving on time.

That compared with a European airline average of 77.7 per cent of planes arriving and 78.9 per cent leaving on time.

Figures for the last quarter of the year show that on short and medium-haul, BA was last from bottom out of 28 airlines for punctuality, with around four out of ten flights late.

BA apologised to passengers a f f e c t e d b y l o s t b a g s o r d e l a y e d f l i g h t s a n d s a i d matters would improve when its Terminal 5 HQ at Heathrow opens next month.

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