BA worst in Europe for lost bags, delays

LONDON: British Airways loses more bags and operates more delayed flights than any other big airline in Europe, a study has found.

Nine passengers on a typical BA jumbo jet find their bags missing when they arrive at their destination. BA’s performance worsened last year, with 26.5 bags lost per 1,000 passengers, compared with 23 in 2006.

The airline was 50 per cent more likely to lose a bag than the average European airline, which mislaid 16.6 bags per 1,000 passengers. Only Air Portugal, which is less than a fifth of the size of BA, lost a higher proportion of bags.

BA also had one of the worst records for punctuality, with more than a third of short-haul and medium-haul flights and almost half of long-haul arriving at least 15 minutes late last year. More than 15 million BA passengers were delayed.

Passengers at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports suffered the worst flight delays among all leading European airports last year, according to the Association of European Airlines.

The study , carried out by the Association of European Airlines, also found Heathrow had the highest level of delays of any airport for flights within Europe, with 35.5%
delayed last year. Gatwick was second-worst, with 30.2 per cent.