BA boss to blast UK transport policy

BRITISH AIRWAYS chief executive Rod Eddington is likely to deliver a withering attack on Government policymakers when he is called in to review the nation's future transport plans.

Eddington, who is leaving the airline in six months' time, has been asked to report direct to Chancellor Gordon Brown and Transport Secretary Alistair Darling on the Future of Transport white paper, which was produced in 2004 to lay down a strategy for the next 30 years.

Eddington is likely to tell ministers to lessen economic regulation of the transport industry, not be afraid of environmentalists, and to stop years of obfuscation and act boldly.

'Rod is passionate about why the Government must halt the terminal decline in the UK of hard infrastructure of airports, railways, roads and ports as well as soft infrastructure like education,' said a BA spokesman.

Eddington has made no secret of the respect for the economic miracles in Hong Kong - where he was based with Cathay Pacific Airways for several years - and South Korea, which made investment in infrastructure their priorities.

He has previously criticised British civil servants for being happy to 'manage the process of decline', and a planning system that has taken 20 years to get a fifth terminal built at Heathrow.

He is also likely to warn ministers about environmentalists hijacking plans for transport growth.