BA Announce Half Year Profit

BA has announced a half year profit of £158m the first for 2 years, the company was expected to make a profit of just half that figure by top analysts. These figures also include the losses caused by striking cabin crew workers and the ash cloud catastrophe.

The figures will be pleasing news for Iberia who are set to merge with BA, the merger will also see BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh receive a 12% pay rise earning him £825,000 a year.

The same period last year saw a £292m loss for BA so it is quite a turnaround, BA put this down to cost cutting measures of 1.5% and a rise of 39% in cargo revenues.

BA Chairman Vents His Anger

BA Chairman Martin Broughton has waged war on airline security checks calling them redundant and unnecessary. He also criticised the way the UK is under the thumb of the US and should stop adhering to their safety rules such as asking passengers to remove their shoes and screening laptops.

Us officials were also in the firing line on their insistence planes bound for the US undergo strict security checks yet US domestic flights are not subject to this intense security level. BAA agreed with Mr Broughton saying security checks were layered on them from UK rules, European rules and US rules, stating one universal ruling would be much easier to adhere to.

Security has been on a high alert ever since the 9/11 attacks along with other attacks since, airports will always be a target for terrorists, however Mr Broughton feels enough is enough.

Transport Minister Philip Hammond said the Government would look at new measures but insisted security was paramount not the time it takes to carry out the measures

Space Way Opens In New Mexico

Spaceport America has opened its long awaited runway that will allow the paying public to travel to space at a cost of $200,000 each via Virgin Galactic's Spaceship two. The runway which has been aptly named a Space way is 2 miles long stretching across the spaceport in New Mexico.

Sir Richard Branson and other high profile astronaughts were present at the unveiling, where Mr Branson said it had been a perfect end to a great month. Spaceship two performed numerous fly pasts, along with its Mothership the White Knight two.

The order book for the historic flights is already over 300, clients will have three days of space training before their flight, where they will experience outer space. The first flights are expected to take off in the next 18 months.

Willie Walsh Relents On Travel Perks

Willie Walsh has amazingly reversed his decision not to restore travel perks to his striking work force by announcing the travel concessions will be restored as of the 26th October. This has been a major stumbling block in the feud between BA and Unite over pay and conditions which resulted in a total of 22 days of strike action which cost BA £150 million.

Though it is still not clear who will receive the perks which give the benefactor 90% off travel costs as BA has not restored seniority in its ranks after many workers went to the back of the queue after taking part in the industrial action.

BA stated that seniority would be re-instated on a good behaviour basis over the next three years. This latest move by BA has left many feeling that an agreement will soon be reached between both parties and put to bed the long running argument.

Airparks In Trouble Again

More bad news for Airparks as BBC programme watchdog will tonight focus on more horror stories about its airport parking services. Again the Luton depot is featured as it was on Tuesday on this blog, this time a customer has reported how after returning home from his holiday in Cyprus, he found his car had been hired out to paying customers.

He only found out his car had been rented out after an Australian tourist in Britain rang his number after finding paperwork in the car and realised it was a private car and not a hire car. The owner of the car was offered £500 compensation but later received £2500.

Airparks said a serious of unlikely events had taken place resulting in the car being mistaken for a hire car, they went on to say the vehicle was not the original one when the booking was made and it had been parked in the car hire car park by accident.

Another disgruntled customer will reveal how they booked Gatwick meet and greet parking then got a phone call from the police whilst on holiday to find their car which was meant to be parked at a secure Gatwick compound had been involved in an accident on the M23, an 18 year old employee with no insurance was responsible.

The programme features tonight 8pm on BBC 1

BMI Future In Doubt

BMI is still warning it may not be able to carry on as viable business after reporting losses of £200m in the year ending December 2009, this added with the loss of £181m in 2008 gives an idea of the mess the Lufthansa owned airline is in.

Back in 2008 the airline made the same announcement on the previous findings, cost cutting measures were put in place, which chief Executive Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said were starting to pay dividends.

Lufthansa has stated it will provide a further £60m to cover operational costs until 2011, however they are not obliged to do so.

Airparks Go The Extra Mile

A Leading UK supplier of airport parking had some explaining to do when Darren Shuster arrived back at Luton Airparks from his two week holiday to find his beloved 5 series BMW had been smashed into a lamp post, causing an estimated £5000 of damage.

But rather than offer to put right the damage he was offered a paltry £600, instead of bending over backwards to accommodate Mr Shuster, he is still without a car and was looking at taking the company to a small claims court to get a better payout.

Mr Shuster said even though the car was 14 years old it was very cherished and had been looked after extremely well. The member of staff who crashed the car was sent home and the operator was very apologetic.

He didn’t start to make any headway until Guardian money raised the issue with Airparks head office and he eventually got a payout of £1400. Airparks also offered Mr Shuster a free parking for 15 days on his next trip. Mr Shuster stated it would be unlikely he would be returning