Virgin to force BAA to pay for Gatwick closure disruption
Virgin is refusing to pay up to £100,000 in airport charges to cover the cost of disruption caused by a runway closure at Gatwick last week.
BAA closed the runway for several hours on December 11 after failing to predict cold weather and de-ice the runway in time for morning arrivals and departures.
The airline said it will automatically deduct the costs it incurred due to the disruption, estimating this could reach up to £100,000.
Virgin had to delay flights and divert seven arriving aircraft to Luton and Stansted, causing disruption for thousands of passengers.
Virgin president Sir Richard Branson said: “It is highly incompetent for an airport operator to fail to predict the cold weather and not have de-icing fluid on standby.
“Thousands of our passengers were disrupted and, while our teams looked after customers and offered refunds and hotel rooms, our costs increased sharply as a result. BAA will have to pick up these costs as it created the problem in the first place.”
Virgin was not the only airline to be impacted by the closure. Other airlines are expected to take similar action.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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