Manx Flyer

C-W-S

Thanks for the explanation on the other thread, but how does that stack up against the likes of Menzies delivering a better performance in most months (according to the links above)? Surely they have the same macro-economic issues to contend with?

It feels like either :
a) Swissport have a management issue somewhere or;
b) BA are not managing the relationship (or didn't negotiate the contract hard enough to allow them to manage the relationship?)

Time for a change of supplier?

I agree with the view that although the delivery of bags is not directly a BA issue, it is part of the service BA provide, contracted out or not, and therefore people will view it as a mark against BA - particularly if other airlines at the same airport do it consistently better.

By the way, who set the service standard that is 'the most measured', or whatever the language on the LGW website says as within 1 hour - that really isn't customer service. 30 mins may be okay, but an hour is a long time to wait, either after a short haul flight - when the wait might be as long as the time wheels up, or after a long haul flight when you just want to get home.

Cheers,

ManxFlyer

paulwuk

I have a contract with Ba. Ba have outsourced part of its operation, but that's nothing to do with me.

Eu261 should have provision for baggage too, with escalating fines for the airline if it's not delivered after x minutes. Would concentrate minds better than "Ba apologise for someone else".

T8191

I apologise for seeming to be a BA apologist! That was not my intention, and I fully accept that BA is ultimately responsible.

Using the link provided by origin, the latest Media comment is >>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-28508587

vectismanpaul

Maybe the airlines at Gatwick using Swissport should get together and form their own Handling Company along the lines of Gatwick Handling years ago. It was owned by Dan Air and Laker I believe. I know Monarch are very unhappy with Swissport too.
Sometimes outsourcing can go very wrong!!

V.

sigma421

Is it possible that BA don't have the in-house resources/experience to oversee an outsourcing contract on this scale? Not that this excuses them in any way but I don't recall Menzies at T1 (which admittedly was never brilliant) being nearly this bad in the bmi days.

paulwuk

In many ways. Doesn't matter how many KPIs you have, there will be unforeseen consequences.

The cost of outsourcing is never found In the first 6 months though, so the people who did the outsourcing will have left with their bonuses by the time everyone else has to pick up the pieces.

ozzydo

What is going on LGW....

Thought I would just share my latest experience with this I was on a BA flight from LGW-PFO and the inbound flight was delayed slightly which is acceptable. So BA had put a 30 minute delay on the flight, which is fine. So we boarded the aircraft and this was completed about 15 minuets before the new expect the departure time.

So it's all going fine currently ready to go....

Until Swissport arrived well they didn't

It came to the new expected arrival time still not left and then to my surprise I looked out the window to see the bags only just started to be offloaded!! This was about 45 minutes after the previous BA flight arrived.... However swissport did get them off quick. In the time from unloading the bags to loading the new ones which was about 2 minuets a Swissport employee went walk a bouts which meant are bags could not be loaded! So by now the flight was delayed by an hour.

Then after another 15 minutes wait the Swissport employee arrived back to the aircraft and loading started this was all completed within another 15 minutes so by now the flight was delayed by 1:30 hours! An hour just down to Swissport!

Not finished yet though!

Next the captain announced that we would be departing within the next 10 minutes! ^
The 10 minutes past and again the captain came on to announce the 'the Swissport man that communicates to the flight deck during the push back has not turned up' we then waited another 20 minutes for them to turn up!

And finally after a 2 hour delay we left the gate! And 1:30 hours due to Swissport!
I'm flying back to LGW tomorrow I hope we don't have to wait to long for are bags to arrive! Which according to some papers could be 5 hours!!!! Really?

Do they need more staff? Bad management? What is all this disruption actually down too?

Please share your Swissport at LGW experiences aswell.

skipness1E

Is it possible a lot of this is former BA staff giving it big time to their former employer for palming them off to one of the companies renowned for destroying terms and conditions for ground staff? If I had been with BA for years and found myself booted out and across to Swissport I would be prioritising a lot of other airlines before Big Airways.

ozzydo

I did think this as well actually did the BA staff loose out on much though?

lorcancoyle

I hope BA have a pretty punitive contract when it comes to service levels - or if not that they get an improved legal team (didn't they cite contract terms for some of the BS issues at T5 lounges after switchover?)

T8191

Well, from what's being said on this stream and others here, and indeed in the Media ... BA does appear to need to get a serious grip on proceedings. This situation appears to be becoming farcical.

And yet other threads are talking about moving more BA routes to LGW? And the move to LGW South will improve matters? I smell a PR disaster lurking in the undergrowth at this rate.

I'm now beginning to dislike LGW - everything seems to be getting worse. It's always a disappointing experience in some respect. Ah, if only BA would link us to LHR so I could avoid LGW for at least half of our trips ... Go on, one slot wouldn't hurt that much. I gather LBA is running on minimal loads of c. 30 pax these days!

ozzydo

I agree T8191 if BA moved to the south terminal I think this would finish BA at LGW, the North check in area is actually quite nice and modern, why move to south terminal and waste all that money they sent on building the new area at north?

We'll maybe not end BA at Gatwick but I can't see it as a good move.

origin

I am surprised LBA is still at LHR, is there any real reason for it being there.

As for BA, they do seem to create their own bad publicity. However it doesn't seem to hurt them too much. Is it because people don't have much choice. Okay Easyjet is doing well, and is fine as long as you don't need the points or want to transfer long haul.

T8191

It would be nice, during the upcoming working week, to get an input from BA Executive Club. I know it's not exactly BAEC-related, but a lot of BA's regular (and indeed less frequent) pax are clearly getting tired on the BA/LGW/Swissport inadequacies.

This isn't a group bid for compensatory Avios, it's a declaration that BA MUST get a grip on the LGW ground operation as it directly affects them, and their paying pax.

Speedbird876

It was interesting that Gatwick had staff manning their Twitter account last night. Some of the tweets were sent after 2am.