British Airways is seeing great results from its on-going punctuality push, with record levels of on-time departures being achieved.

British Airways is beating its competitors in getting flights away from London on time on 80 percent of its routes.

Mike Street, British Airways’ Director of Customer Service and Operations, said: “Getting flights away on time is a vital part of our customer service. The latest results are encouraging, but we aim to continue to improve our punctuality levels to be the most punctual airline in Europe.

“We have introduced a whole range of initiatives in the past year to help achieve this, both “behind the scenes” and involving our customers.”

Departures Gates are being closed ten minutes before the flight is due to push back. This “-10” approach will help ensure that passengers are safely seated and ready for take-off by the scheduled departure time, enabling crew to finish last minute preparations and push-back promptly.

This new policy has been tested at Heathrow and Gatwick since November 1998 and British Airways customer services staff have been communicating the new procedures to passengers and explaining that it has been introduced to help them get to their destinations on time.

Other customer initiatives include the introduction of easy-to-read boarding passes which highlight the departure gate and the time that the gate will close. In addition customer service staff are now weighing all hand baggage at check-in to reduce the number of passengers stopped at the gate with excessive carry-on bags, which then need to be tagged and placed in the hold - a process that can further delay departure.

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