BMI flies up to ten empty planes in Heathrow bag chaos

BMI sent the flights empty because the airport could not process passengers and baggage in time. The revelation is the latest blow to the reputation of the airport.

BMI chairman Sir Michael Bishop today spoke of his anger at the state of Heathrow.

He said its owner BAA had to improve its act and said its reputation had been "trashed", adding: "It must be rebuilt from the bottom up."

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In an unprecedented attack, he said BAA - now owned by Spanish building group Ferrovial - had failed to deal with the problems it faces.

He highlighted the problems of security, massive queues and delays.

"They sat on their hands and thought it would go away," Sir Michael told the Financial Times.

The problems of Heathrow are now so bad that BMI has postponed plans to launch transatlantic flights from Heathrow.

Sir Michael said it was postponing direct flights to American cities until 2009 because of Heathrow's problems.

BMI, which is the second biggest airline operating out of Heathrow, believes that the endless delays and disruption hampering the world's busiest airport will continue even after the opening of Terminal 5.

It thinks that not even the transfer of most of British Airways flights to Terminal 5 will be enough to relieve the situation.

The airline fears that the reorganisation of the airport which will come with the opening of T5 will itself be chaotic.

A series of airlines will move terminals as British Airways, the biggest single operator, moves to the new building.

Sir Michael said that concern over the state of the airport and the delays was hitting passenger numbers and there had been a "significant reduction" in transfer traffic through the airport as international travellers opt to avoid it.

BMI was supposed to be one of the biggest winners in the socalled "open skies" treaty struck this year between America and the EU after years of negotiations.

This summer has seen some of the worst delays on record at Heathrow. Passenger numbers have gone down and on one day this month every departure was late - 14 per cent by more than an hour.

This week two top BAA bosses quit. Media relations chief Mark Mann and corporate affairs boss Duncan Bonfield left as sources said the conduct of their Spanish bosses had made their jobs impossible.

The two executives were said to be appalled over the way Ferrovial deals with the British media, politicians and regulators.

In recent weeks BAA, which operates a total of seven UK airports, has suffered a storm of criticism over its management of Heathrow in particular.

Ferrovial faces having BAA's monopoly over London airports broken up by the competition authorities, who are currently investigating whether the company has abused its dominant position.

Since Ferrovial took control last year, BAA has lost its chairman, chief executive, finance director, security chief, Terminal 5 chairman and the head of human resources.