BAA's T5 cock-up loses them £62 million

Call me a softy, but I'm starting to feel sorry for the aviation industry. Last weekend we learnt that one airline a week is going out of business in the US, while oil prices have forced Australian flagship Quantus to ground some of its fleet. Then came the cherry on the cake: BAA, the UK's least popular airport owner, made a loss of £62 million in the first three months of 2008.

Quick to rustle up an excuse, the Heathrow bosses blamed the fiasco at T5, although seeing as this was entirely their fault, is a bit like saying "we're broke because we're crap" - not an excuse, but a reason. Apparently they were so determined to get the opening right that they spent £24 million on security and the like - presumably to keep out the scruffy protesters who flash mobbed them.

Sadly this loss just makes their selling Gatwick or Stansted all the more likely, increasing competition between airports and, as the Competition Commission made clear, increasing the calls for unbridled airport expansion - although if BAA keep losing money like this, they'll have to scale back their plans to bury Sipson under the tarmac...