In the wake of the disastrous opening of the new Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport, British Airways has acted by announcing that operations director, Gareth Kirkwood (right) and customer services director, David Noyes, would be leaving the company.
The two senior executives have paid the price for the fiasco surrounding the opening of the new facility, which saw hundreds of flights cancelled and some 28,000 bags going astray.
It was inevitable that Kirkwood’s position would become untenable after the shambolic first week of operations. Kirkwood also remains under investigation by the US Department of Justice for alleged price-fixing while in his previous position as head of British Airways World Cargo. The DoJ has not yet ruled out pressing for the extradition of Kirkwood and nine other present and former employees implicated in the cartel activity.
Chief executive Willie Walsh will be hoping that the pressure on his position will ease following the announcement. Now, didn’t he utter the words “the buck stops with me” only a week ago. He must have a short memory – unlucky for him the media don’t!
Posted in Latest Media Training News | 1 Comment »
April 15th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
About time that someone took the blame and some action was taken! However, I can’t help wondering if the two execs are just the scapegoats.
As reported in PR Week, Kirkwood was the only BA figure who braved the onslaught of the media and gave a statement on the first day of crisis.
I wonder what kind of redundancy package they’ve been given to ‘step down’?