BA must be very forgiving

After all its tussles with Virgin over the years, to say nothing of Branson's airline dumping them in the compost over the rigging of fuel surcharges, it's surprisingly generous of BA to be one of the first advertisers on Virgin 1, Dickie's new TV service.

Or perhaps they're just going to display a caption reading "SWITCH OVER TO SKY ONE NOW".

BA: Now loses passengers as well as baggage

We're not sure if BA have officially decided to turn themselves from an airline into some sort of Vaudeville act, but that's certainly the impression they're giving: they've now managed to start mislaying passengers, like the 83 year-old man who they left stranded in Heathrow. During his time there, he had a stroke, a serious fall, and is now facing a £20,000 flight if he wants to return to his home.

What was it PJ O'Rourke used to say about BA in those ads?

Curious times in the airline industry

The Chief Executive at Heathrow has quit, just a few days after telling the Guardian the airport was 'bursting at the seams'. The departure seems a little, shall we say, rushed.

Meanwhile, British Airways' chairman has criticised the current 'one piece of handluggage' rule, which was introduced last year in response to the need to make John Reid seem decisive:

"We recognise that security is the top issue for passengers, given the current threat from terrorist activity. But to be effective, security has to be credible. Current UK security requirements are no longer credible," he told shareholders at the company's annual meeting.

Mr Broughton said the one bag rule was not applied elsewhere in Europe or in the US, undermining its security credentials. But it irritated passengers and stretched Heathrow's creaking baggage handling capability, causing conveyor belt breakdowns, which in turn meant baggage being delayed. The rule "makes London an unattractive place, particularly for transit passengers. It needs to be changed as soon as possible."

BA hide lost bags behind Bin Laden

It being summer, BA is having a mini-crisis: this time it's a massive backlog of baggage. BA say it's down to, ooh, terror alerts; the unions say it's understaffing.

I wonder which could be the real reason: oddly, no other airline has been reporting baggage difficulties, and yet all were affected by the idiocy alerts. And BA does have quite a bit of form for this sort of thing. I wonder.