BA Scottish flights hit after ground operations outsourced
21.06.07
Thousands of British Airways passengers faced delays and disruption yesterday after the airline outsourced its ground handling to a separate company. Dozens of flights between Edinburgh and London were delayed by between 15 minutes and three hours, according to newspaper reports.
Previously BA's check-in and baggage handling operations at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airport's had been provided by 434 BA employed staff - 218 at Edinburgh Airport, 56 in Aberdeen and 216 in Glasgow. However, after the airline sold its non-London short haul operations to Flybe earlier this year, BA announced that it would outsource the functions to ground handling company Aviance.
The change went live at Edinburgh Airport yesterday, and resulted in delays for many of BA's London bound flights. Worst hit were flights to London City, which were cancelled or severely disrupted. Shuttle flights to Heathrow and Gatwick ran between 15 minutes and one hour late all day.
Union officials denied there was any 'go-slow' by remaining BA workers, saying that the delays were a result of Aviance using fewer staff. However, BA insisted delays were isolated, saying that the London City delays were due to problems with the Instrument Landing System at the London airport and not connected with the ground handling change. It blamed 'teething problems' for the other delays and said 'we expect those to be ironed out.'
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