Willie Walsh, Iata DG and former CEO of British Airways parent company IAG, has warned that “heads should roll” if the chaos seen at Heathrow Airport this year continues into 2023. “Let’s be clear about it, because there’s no excuse,” he said at the Airlines 2022 conference in Westminster, London on Monday (November 21).
When Heathrow Airport originally imposed a cap on daily passenger departures back in July, Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye claimed the move was largely in response to airlines not employing enough ground handlers.
Walsh has now called the statement “total rubbish”, adding: “I think the Government and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) could have been more vocal in criticising Heathrow for their performance. I think allowing John Holland-Kaye to point the finger at airlines and say ‘it’s all the airlines’ fault’ was unacceptable, because it wasn’t all the airlines’ fault.”
“It’s largely Heathrow and Schiphol, and the CEO of Schiphol lost his job. The problem at Heathrow has been mostly down to Heathrow’s inability to get people through security,” he added. “There’s no excuse for it continuing. No excuse whatsoever.”
Walsh also said that Heathrow was “lowballing” the speed of recovery because that would enable the airport to win a better settlement on prices from the CAA.
