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Never mind the cabin crew, it’s the passengers who’ll soon be on strike

The Times' Travel News Editor wonders whether the airline should worry as much about its customers as its staff

One month, four BA flights - four delays and one mislaid bag. Sometimes I wonder whether British Airways should be worrying as much about future customer strikes as it does about keeping its cabin crew happy.

As I sat in a crowded café at Geneva airport on Monday, word filtered through of the cancellation of the staff strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday from a nearby passenger with a laptop.

But an update on our own destiny was less easy to come by. During our five-hour wait we were told the hold-up had been caused by “a late aircraft from Vienna . . . bad weather, and a technical problem”. To make up for this, we were given vouchers worth 15 Swiss francs (£6) that ranked lower in value than a “snack”, but higher than a cup of tea.

We clubbed together to buy burnt slices of pizza, dipped into our pockets for beers and watched the minutes tick by.

Poor communication, late flights, inexplicable “explanations”, staff who look as if they would rather not have to bother with pesky customers, and a sense that a rot has well and truly set in are all familiar, in my recent experience, on what was “the world’s favourite airline”.

Recently I spent half a year travelling on budget airlines to Europe researching a book on low-cost travel. In all, I took 24 flights, with just one delay of more than an hour. Ryanair, Wizz Air, easyJet, SkyEurope and Air Berlin came up with the goods.

Latest statistics highlight the superior punctuality of budget airlines. From January to September last year, 85 per cent of Ryanair’s flights and 75 per cent of easyJet’s were on time. But just 71 per cent of BA’s were.

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyJet, told me that the reason for the better record is that budget aircraft must make quick turn-arounds or else the budget airline model - which relies on maximising planes - fails. Ryanair added: “BA operates from Heathrow. It’s congested there.”

So how does BA and its executives - who, as The Times revealed earlier this week, spend their time waiting for aircraft in first-class lounges, not jam-packed cafés - defend its punctuality?

“We haven’t got the stats to hand right now,” said a spokesman, diffidently. “Can we get back to you tomorrow?”

Yet another BA delay. Well, I suppose I am used to that.

How Low Can You Go? by Tom Chesshyre (Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99) is published in May.