British Airways could be facing a whopping £300,000 fine for operating a flight without enough toilet paper.
The looming fine, due to the shortage of toilet roll and “the wrong kind of headphones” forced a five-hour delay for passengers on a scheduled service between Gatwick and Barbados.
Per the Independent.co.uk, a mouse caused havoc for the airline earlier this month after running amok aboard a Boeing 777 and later cost British Airways a small fortune in compensation when a Heathrow-San Francisco flight departed four hours late.
Last week’s toilet paper incident is apparently expected to cost the airline in the tune of £291,200 in compensation under European passengers’ rights rules, plus possibly thousands more in extra expenses such as meals for delayed travellers.
According to the paper, the latest delay was “due to what appears to be inadequate preparation of the aircraft, departure was initially delayed by 1 hour 40 minutes”. While passengers were forced off the aircraft, one tweeted “BA2153 utter shambles. BA cost cutting means we’re all disembarked due to shortage of bog roll!”
The delay was then exacerbated as the outbound crew being had to be changed after being “out of hours” resulting in the flight being almost five hours late.
According to the paper, British Airways have switched ground handlers at Gatwick at the start of this month.
The paper also cites a British Airways spokesperson saying: “We are sorry customers were delayed after some of the many items needed for the flight weren’t loaded on to the aircraft.”
