No time to relax for BA’s fighter pilot

British Airways staff have sometimes been accused of ‘working without enthusiasm’, says Judi Bevan — but you certainly couldn’t say that of chief executive Willie Walsh

Before meeting Willie Walsh, I take a stroll round Terminal 5, marvelling at the vast, elegant haven of calm and efficiency it has become compared with the pandemonium of last March’s opening. All looks serene until I ask the nice young press officer with me whether passengers are now allowed two pieces of hand luggage.

We approach one of the check-in desks, where she politely introduces herself and asks the young woman behind it if this is indeed the case. The expression of glum insolence on the woman’s face transports me back to the Telegraph in the days when Sogat 82 ruled OK, print was set in hot metal and most of the secretarial staff were the daughters or nieces of the printers. Her eyes flicked briefly over my companion’s face.