The Flybe solution to the Terminal 5 fiasco

Filed in archive Air Travel on March 31, 2008

© Jeff Kubina

It's been a terrible week for British airlines. The Terminal 5 saga has been a nightmare from British Airways. A far cry from the much touted pleasurable experience that the new Heathrow terminal was supposed to herald. I thought that Terminal 5 had been through extensive testing prior to opening.

Anybody in their right mind will be doing everything possible to avoid Heathrow, which already had a pretty bad reputation, even before the latest fiasco. I know that many Scots taking long haul trips would fly from Scotland Schipol in Holland in preference passing through Heathrow.

Low cost airline Flybe was advertising for seat-filler actors to make up the shortfall in their 150,000 passenger target on their Norwich to Dublin flights. Flybe was due to be fined £280,000 if the target was not achieved. The no liner flying actors were to be paid around £80 a day. In the end the actors' services were not required when Flybe advertised 200 free flights and made up the shortfall of the 172 passengers to avoid the fine.

Perhaps British Airways should have been transferring their frustrated passengers to Norwich airport to fill some of these empty Flybe seats and the actors could have been gainfully employed posing as confident, knowledgeable, well trained British Airways staff soothing irate grounded passengers?