Well this is just sensationalism gone mad.

Basically it must have been a slow news day for this to make the ITN News.

So BA has operated several transatlantic flights without crew and pax due to crew shortages and the angle ITN take is the supposed harm this causes to the environment. Pleeeaassseee! tell me what should BA have done instead.

Whilst having crew shortages and managing the rosters to make sure flights are staffed and therefore filled is a basic part of BA's business, and they are failing miserably, that is the only story here.

That the planes flew empty is regrettable but lets face it they would have flown anyway as they were scheduled flights so no more CO2 was expended than normal (probably less due to the light loads).

However, what about the passengers waiting in the USA for these flights to return to the UK? If BA had decided to 'protect' the environment by not making the outbound flights they would have stranded several 747's full of pax for the return flights and the crews already positioned to staff them. This would have in turn increased the problems with crew availability in LON.

So the story here should have been 'Poor Staff Management Causes BA To Make Tough Choices' but thats hardly going to make anyone spill their cocoa is it!

Signed

Bad Attitude