Walsh: Heads must roll if airport chaos repeated next year

OUTSPOKEN global aviation boss Willie Walsh laid into Heathrow management again this weekend, warning that any repeat of this year’s chaos should see bosses given the boot.

The Hounslow airport has been bruised and battered by passenger demand outstripping expectations, leaving staff shortages, last-minute delays and myriad stories of travel chaos on social media.

“If we are in the same position next year, then without question people should be fired,” Walsh told the Mail on Sunday.

Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye last week defended a decision to cap passenger numbers at the airport over the summer, a move which effectively involves blocking airlines from selling seats.

Leaked emails last week suggested that Holland-Kaye had rubbished suggestions of a post-pandemic travel boom – which, having materialised, has left the airport without sufficient staff. Whilst it is not alone in Europe, the airport’s issues are running into months.

Walsh, the former boss of British Airways and now head of the International Air Transport Association, said Heathrow “clearly can’t cope” with passenger numbers and said the hub’s management “should have been better prepared” ahead of the summer.