15.08.05
Passengers stranded at Heathrow airport for more than three days are said to be so incensed with BA's handling of the problems that they intend to sue the airline for compensation. Tens of thousands were stranded at Heathrow for up to 72 hours; BA has had a problem at Heathrow in three successive summers, so they should know how to deal with it by now, they added.
Yesterday, some 48 hours after BA staff had returned to work, thousands of passengers were still stranded at Heathrow, or waiting to board their flights. They had suffered a chaotic few days of delays, sleepless nights and a lack of accurate information. Some passengers have been treated for exhaustion, stress and dehydration.
Although the airline said that 80% of long-haul flights were running as normal yesterday, they were unable to clear the backlog of passengers, so hundreds of travellers spent another night at heathrow airport hotels or on terminal floors.
Many of those stranded criticised BA's 'disgraceful' treatment, after wildcat strikes by b ground staff in support of sacked workers at catering firm Gate Gourmet hit the flights of 113,000 travellers. Thousands faced a difficult choice each night - go to an airport hotel and lose their place in the queue, or stay in the queue and sleep on the terminal floor.
Passengers said that they had called the BA telephone helpline for hours but were unable to get through. One said that the line had closed at midnight and not reopened until 09:00 - too late for him to decide what to do. Even the BA website, which Chief Executive Rod Eddington had urged passengers to use on Friday, failed to keep up with changing events a number of times during the strike.
BA's staff, struggling to cope with the thousands of stranded passengers, resorted to a system of handing out numbered tickets yesterday, in an attempt to regulate the queue. And at one point passengers were ordered to wait outside the terminal for 90 minutes, before being allowed back in in groups of 10. 'It was like being at a supermarket meat counter. But with no prospect of being served!' a passenger said.
Customers were frustrated that BA had apparently learnt nothing from problems in the last two summers at Heathrow, including unofficial strikes in 2003. This year's dispute is expected to cost the airline up to £50 million in direct costs, including compensation and legal action from disgruntled customers, which could cost as much as £30 million.
But it is the damage to the airlines image and a reputation for letting down customers at the peak of summer which is likely to cost the airline much, much more.
Of the compensation issue, Ingrid Gubbay, Campaigns Lawyer for Which? (the Consumers' Association) - said: 'I imagine there will be some sort of settlement agreement with BA. I would advise [travellers] to keep all their receipts in case they need to prove their losses.' Gubbay added 'passengers who do not have travel insurance, but had booked tickets by credit card, might be entitled to compensation from their credit card company under the terms of the Credit Act.'
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