Taylor on Travel

Willie Walsh did not, to my knowledge, join Stop the War protestors in Parliament Square to oppose the recent visit of George Bush. But the British Airways boss was every bit as angry about the presidential trip that disrupted flights at Heathrow for three days in mid-June.

As ever, BA bore the brunt with more than 50 flights cancelled, 260 delayed and 38,000 passengers inconvenienced.

Not only was a runway closed for the president's exclusive use upon his arrival and departure - a privilege not extended to Britain's prime minister or the Queen - but a practice run by US military helicopters two days before also shut a runway.

Walsh expressed his anger at the "completely unnecessary" disruption in a column in staff newspaper BA News, complaining of knock-on delays of six hours on two of the days.

One wonders why Heathrow was preferred to a US military base. God knows there are enough of them in Britain with an active US Air Force presence - so much so that the country was compared to a US aircraft carrier in the 1980s.

Was the security at Heathrow considered superior? Did the president want some duty free? And why did the helicopter pilots require a dry run two days before Bush arrived - were they rusty?

Walsh was still smarting when he appeared at a conference on sustainable aviation in London on Wednesday. "It was ridiculous," he said. "But it won't happen again."

By all accounts Heathrow operator BAA was not happy either. A spokeswoman conceded the visit, including the "helicopter rehearsal", caused three days of disruption. I suggest the anti-Heathrow expansion group Hacan Clearskies contacts the pilots immediately to take part in future protests.

Indeed, why not go the whole hog and sign up Bush himself. No one else has managed to close a runway three times in as many days and the Texan will be free from January.

Meantime, presumably the Civil Aviation Authority will waive a portion of its monthly fine on BAA for delays to passengers, which ran to £3.1 million in April and May. And we must add a new item to the list of hair-trigger factors - fog, strong winds, cross winds, security alerts - that cause disruption at Heathrow.

Delayed due to the fog of war - I bet it's already on the flight indicators.