Airlines demanding BAA explanation about Gatwick closure

British Airways and easyJet, the two major airlines operating from Gatwick Airport, are demanding an investigation into the closure of the airport’s runway due to weather conditions last week.

The failure of the airport operator to de-ice the runway on Friday morning led to hundreds of flights being delayed, diverted or cancelled, as the runway remained closed for nearly five hours.

BAA, the owner-operator of Gatwick cited “exceptional weather conditions” as the reason for the closure, which meant that no flights were able to land or take off between 5:50am and 10:30am, causing the disruption of travel plans for thousands of air passengers.

Both British Airways and easyJet, which combined account for approximately 50 per cent of the traffic at Gatwick, are claiming that BAA could have avoided the closure.

“BAA must be the only organisation in the south-east that didn’t prepare for yesterday’s bad weather,” said a spokesman for easyJet. “It is like the bad old days of British Rail closing down lines and blaming ‘the wrong kind of snow’ – it’s an absolute disgrace.”

The spokesman added that BAA will need to address compensation to airlines for the runway closure as the disruption cost carriers a substantial sum.

EasyJet was forced to delay 32 of its flights by as much as five hours, with five additional arrivals being diverted to Stansted and Luton.

A British Airways spokeswoman said that as many as 25 per cent of its Gatwick flights had to cancelled on Friday, and described the situation as “unacceptable.”

“Our priority is to ensure this cannot happen again, and we are seeking urgent discussions with BAA,” the spokeswoman added.

Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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