BA chief Willie Walsh to get £700,000 bonus despite Terminal 5 chaos

The embattled boss of British Airways could scoop a bonus worth up to £700,000, it emerged yesterday.

Any payment to Willie Walsh is likely to spark outrage, coming just a few weeks after the disastrous opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5.

The opening of the showcase terminal was branded a national disgrace with lost baggage, broken escalators, cancelled flights and furious passengers.

British Airways is expected to announce record profits of around £870million next Friday, putting the airline on course to hit targets needed to trigger bonuses for directors, senior managers and other staff.

Former pilot Mr Walsh's annual salary is £700,000 and he could get a bonus worth up to 100 per cent of this amount according to the company's annual report.

Any "performance-related" payment to Mr Walsh is likely to be slammed as another reward for failure.

This week, he admitted to MPs that he was ultimately responsible for the farcical scenes shown around the world of Terminal 5's opening in March.

He told the Travel Select Committee that he had been aware of problems with the £4.3billion terminal before it opened, and had discussed delaying its first day.

Mr Walsh said: "It was a calculated risk and one I decided to take. You can't point the finger at anyone else."

Scroll down for more...

His appearance before MPs caused considerable amusement after he said the company had not "lost" bags, but "misconnected" them.

The lost bags episode led to humiliation for British Airways with scenes of tears, fury and frustration from holidaymakers and businessmen.

Yesterday a spokesman for British Airways said it could not comment on Mr Walsh's potential bonus until the results are published next week.

He said: "Whether or not he [Willie Walsh] is awarded a bonus depends on a few key performance measures."

But one senior City figure said: "Insofar as the decision to open Terminal 5 on March 27 was wrong, there should be consequences. This was not just a question of 'events, dear boy.' The directors took the decisions and they were disastrous.

"British Airways is still in denial about just how bad the problem was. It was horrific.

"If the board do anything other than refuse to accept any bonuses, they will look extremely foolish."

Francois Massie, a business executive who suffered three hours of delays on the terminal's opening day, said: "Willie Walsh has said he was aware of the problems with opening Terminal Five but decided to carry on.

"He gave priority to cashflow over customer satisfaction. To refuse to take a bonus would be a very bold decision, and it would be appreciated by BA customers, but I don't think it's going to happen."

BAA has been forced to accept a £400million emergency loan from its Spanish owner Ferrovial.

The handout is just the latest in a series of humiliations for the crisis-hit operator of Heathrow and Gatwick, including the Terminal 5 fiasco.

The credit squeeze has hit BAA hard and experts believe the interest bill on its debts has spiralled to over £2million a day, which could hasten its mooted break-up.