Wednesday 21 April 2010

Did Willie Walsh put a gun to the government's head?

Certainly looks like it to me.

Old Holborn first smelt a rat at 7pm yesterday, spotting that planes were flying in UK airspace.

People I've spoken to who watched this site last night noticed lots of BA flights heading for the UK and circling round it multiple times.

Now Sky News have latched onto the idea that maybe Willie Walsh held a gun to the UK Government's head:

Willie Walsh has attacked the airport jet ban - as suspicions grow that the British Airways boss' decision to send 26 UK-bound planes into the sky forced the Government's hand.


It must have been a difficult choice for Gordon - on the one hand, he probably wanted airspace to close until a few people had been shown gratefully climbing off a Navy ship only to be greeted by his dribbling face; but at the other hand, he likely had an angry Irish man on the phone said "Right then Gordon, I've got hundreds of UK citizens in the air waiting to land, are you going to let them?".

Now it seems the CAA might be sort of admitting that the closure of the airspace might have been knee-jerk. Gosh, really?

2 comments:

BristleKRS said...

I saw two planes (over the west/north-west of Bristol, flying in a south-westerly or westerly sort of direction) yesterday about midday or one o'clock in the afternoon.

Bristol Dave said...

Interesting, thanks.

I know some airlines like KLM were doing test flights but I rather suspect we're not being told the whole story here.