BA heads to roll over flights chaos

SENIOR British Airways executives face the sack after the staff shortage fiasco that crippled the airline's operations at Heathrow last week and threatens to do the same this bank holiday weekend.

Chief executive Rod Eddington is determined to force those responsible for the bulk of 100 cancellations to pay with their jobs for damaging the airline's hard-won reputation.

However, according to The Business newspaper, Eddington has also admitted that too many staff were made redundant after the September 11 attacks and that this led to the scenes of chaos at Heathrow last week.

Operations director Mike Street, whose department is responsible for the managerial errors that led to the staff shortages, is seen as likely to be at the head of the queue in the cull.

It is understood that the cancellations and turmoil at Heathrow will cost the airline about £5m. But the true cost is to the airline's reputation.

Eddington, who was leading a team of senior and middle managers at Heathrow this weekend to help passengers, told Financial Mail: 'After this weekend, I will sit down and think very carefully about what went wrong and what we can do about rescuing our reputation. I can assure you the review will be very thorough and I will not hesitate to take the necessary action.'

Many at BA believe that Eddington has been let down by a small number of key executives making mistakes that could have been avoided.

Over the past three years, Eddington has hauled BA back into profit despite soaring fuel prices and fears of terrorism hitting passenger numbers. He has changed the shape of BA by slashing more than 13,000 jobs.

But having to blame staff shortages and delays on security checks at a time of the year that is traditionally among its busiest, risks making BA a laughing stock.

Eddington is confident that he still has the full support of the board even though he accepts responsibility for the Heathrow shambles. He does not intend to quit at this stage. 'I still have a few more laps in me,' he says.