“I don’t believe people fly because they like the idea of flying.”

That came out of the mouth of Willie Walsh, the head of British Airways in an interview with BBC’s “Costing the Earth” on Radio 4. I listened to it twice because the first time I wasn’t sure that I really heard it but it was still on the repeat so why these intriguing words?

We are used to the no frills airlines charges us for just about anything that they can come up with but up until now we haven’t faced fees from UK traditional airlines.

Now BA has joined the club.

Being small, I don’t really have problems with seats in planes. With short legs nearly every plane is reasonably comfortable for me but then, I am not like most people.

Over the last fifty years or so people have grown. Not just in height but by girth as well. But in most cases, airline seats haven’t.

Wallow in nostalgia for a moment.

Do you remember when flying was fun and an adventure?

No, neither do I. It has always been a chore. Just as one thing improves flying, online check-in for example, something comes up to make it more difficult.

The outbreak of a flu virus in Mexico has prompted some of the strangest media coverage. On the one hand, there have been the stories of returning holidaymakers suffering from flu like symptoms and the spread of the virus to other countries and on the other, plaintive stories of people who have had their holiday [...]

What a difference a couple of days make.Earlier this week I was congratulating BA on the calm, understated pleasant flight I had.Yesterday The Times reported that BA was considering selling the Concorde it has at Heathrow to a group of investors in Dubai where it will be grouped with the QE2 and marketed as [...]

Last week I flew on BA for the first time in about six months. In that time BA has faced all the problems that airlines have had; increasing fuel prices and then hedging fuel at high prices or at high insurance rates, lower demand from its premium paying passengers and the difficulties of merging with [...]

Cast you minds back. To 6 months ago. When Heathrow’s Terminal 5 opened and there were all those problems. Seems a long time ago since then we have reported that. Like all new openings, there were teething problems and those may have been worse than elsewhere or may have been overblown by the media. Now [...]