Two BA bosses 'leave' after T5 fiasco

Two senior managers at British Airways have paid the price following the airline's chaotic move to Heathrow's Terminal 5.

BA said that "following the airline's move to T5", operations director Gareth Kirkwood and customer services director David Noyes "will be leaving the company".

The start of BA flights from the new £4.3 billion T5 last month led to travel chaos, with dozens of flights cancelled and thousands of bags going astray.

BA said it was looking to appoint a chief operations officer to combine the roles of the two executives who were leaving.

It was not until last week that BA was able to run a full service from T5 which had been officially opened - amid much optimism from BA and Heathrow operator BAA - on March 14.

In the days that followed the catastrophic first day of flights at T5, passengers suffered luggage-belt problems, flight delays and cancellations and days-long waits to be reunited with their bags.

Last week, BA announced that it was postponing its planned move to T5 of almost its entire Heathrow long-haul operation from April 30 to some time in June.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh, answering questions from foreign journalists, said that it was possible that the complete move might not be done until October.

During the T5 opening day, there were pictures of an exasperated BA press officer shutting the door to a staff rest room in the face of pursuing journalists after a media briefing in which Mr Kirkwood refused to take questions.

Mr Noyes had appeared with other BA and BAA bosses at an up-beat media conference ahead of the March 27 T5 opening in which he had said that the new terminal was going to be "a fantastic facility".

He said those queueing at check-in would not expect to have more than one person in front of them and that the sophisticated new baggage system would mean BA would "really improve its baggage performance".

When asked at that pre-opening press conference whether too rosy a picture of the new terminal was being painted, Mr Noyes retreated slightly by saying there would be a "bedding down period" for T5.

But he added: "We are confident that this building is operationally ready."

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