Episode 3 A Very British Airline

British Airways is one of the UK's most visible brands.

It sells Britishness as a mark of quality.

Some passengers are happy to part with small fortunes

to fly in its first class.

A one-way fare is just over 10,000.

But in the last decade, the business has faced financial crisis.

Today, more people fly easyJet than BA.

We all fly to the same destinations, so what can we do to stand out?

As the airline reaches a turning point, our cameras have been allowed

unique access to its inner world.

From the top-level decisions...

We're not as big in China as we should be,

so getting this right is very important.

..to the daily challenges of its global operation...

Actually, sir, it's not all right

because the flight's closed for check-in.

..we've been following some of the airline's 40,000 staff...

Do you know what? The pressure is on.

..as they work to meet exacting standards.

Very disappointing.

In this episode we'll reveal how it manages the challenges

of operating out of the world's most congested airport...

All the delays cost the company money.

..trains a new generation of pilots...

Rotate. Engine fire...

To fall at the last hurdle would be a nightmare

and it would be sort of career over.

..and tries to stay afloat in a competitive market.

Beneficial if you can ride a knock every now and again.

552 back on stand to offload a passenger who is having

-a panic attack.

-A panic attack?

-Panic attack.

There are an awful lot of things within aviation that can

influence, and the vast majority of them

are not necessarily controlled by us.

Today, something special is happening at Cranebank,

the airline's flight training centre.

For the first time in over a decade, the company's training

new cadet pilots, the first since 9/11,

when the airline industry went into decline.

50...

30... 20... Retard...

Their 18-month course costs each cadet £84,000.

Most pay for it with a loan guaranteed by the airline.

Failure would be expensive.

-How did it go?

-Er, yeah, well.

It was really, really good fun. Pretty much what I expected.

A lot of work and very intensive, but really good fun.

The urge to fly is so strong, some recruits have moved into

an airport hotel for the final weeks of training.

They call it the bug.

I was 27 before I flew in a light aircraft, controlling it myself,

and as soon as I left the ground, it just...

I knew that I had to learn to fly, it's so incredibly addictive.

30-year-old Joel Garabidian

has gambled a lot on becoming a BA pilot.

'I had a job which I enjoyed. I had a house, a car.

'You know, my life was complete.

'But the lure of flying was just incredibly strong.'

24-year-old Andy McKellan's father was a pilot.

For Andy, flying is all about taking control.

As soon as we put those thrust levers forward

and you feel the power coming from the engine, you get a certain

amount of excitement, and then you take off, and it's you,

and it's freedom,

because essentially what people say on the ground

and what you do, you're in charge of your own destiny.

'This is just all I've ever wanted to do.'

To fall at the last hurdle would be a nightmare,

and it would be sort of career over, and I'd have to re-evaluate

and think of different career paths that I'd have to go down.

I'm kind of financially all in on the scheme

but from an emotional point of view,

I've invested the last two years of my life in the scheme.

I've been away from my wife and my friends,

and obviously it would be...

It would be beyond disappointing to have to give up

on that dream.

There were 4,500 applicants for the first intake of new pilots.

Only 89 got through.

In these critical last few weeks, the cadets need to show

they've got what it takes to fly passenger planes.

What are you expecting?

-A lot of work.

-A lot of work, that's what I like.

What kind of work? Is it book work knowledge?

Combination really, book work knowledge and also other things

that we haven't really done before, because of course

we've been flying with nobody in the back, and now all of a sudden

we've got passengers and all the problems that that deals with.

Yeah, all the problems that passengers give you!

On any given day, 110,000 passengers travel with BA.

The company's hub is at Heathrow,

the busiest international airport in the world.

Here, 84 airlines compete fiercely for passengers and space.

Going to New York? New York?

Getting people onto the airline's 800 daily flights

and sending them off on time is an operation of great complexity.

A workforce of 40,000 pull together around the clock,

battling against whatever's thrown at them.

-Morning.

-Morning, how you doing?

It's going to get busy. It's the calm before the storm.

Yeah, it's going to get busy.

Rugby player Kevin Mackenzie is one of the airline's

operations control managers.

It's a feeling I've always had running onto a rugby pitch,

you get that little knot in the bottom of your stomach

cos you never quite know what to expect.

For the next 12 hours, he's the man in charge.

Morning, all.

Kevin's part of a team of 90 responsible for all BA planes

around the world.

Morning, guys.

We're here for dealing with the unplanned.

That's effectively a normal business for us.

My responsibility is to oversee the whole of the network globally

and to maintain the operational plan as published,

so when external factors influence that plan,

the teams in here work to recover that

and get the operation back on track.

That's going to... That's going to infuriate me.

From this control room,

all parts of the airline's network are tracked.

# It's not unusual to be loved by anyone, doo doo doo...#

That's probably not a bad thing I was just singing.

Anoushka Warrick is a turnaround manager.

It's her job to keep flights running to time.

Any delay can have a knock-on effect on the rest of the day's schedule.

Where are we going?

We are going to stand 543 to meet the 216 arrival,

which has been declared a medical emergency,

which means that a passenger on board is feeling unwell.

Can I just confirm it's the passenger in 5 alpha?

Bang to the head the day before he flew and now not feeling well,

is that right?

Do I have any paramedics up there?

-PHONE:

-Press the hash key.

-Kev, ops control.

-PHONE BEEPS

-Now attending. Kev, ops control.

-Morning, Kev. Debs here.

-Hi, Debs.

At the start of every shift, Kevin has a conference call

with all the airline's operational departments.

Anybody else on the call, please?

It's a chance to flag up any potential disruption.

MUFFLED VOICE ON PHONE

Right, ta.

OK, the medic has arrived, apparently...

-Ah, here we go.

-Morning.

-Excuse me.

Just going to stay out of the way,

cos there's a lot of paramedics in there, but they're going to be

taking the gentleman out and on to the high lift.

He's got everything? Shoes and...?

Right, that's it. You're done.

Ops update, overnight, please.

OK, morning, Kev, morning, all. The 216 this morning arrived early,

he declared a medical emergency on arrival

and obviously that's being dealt by Heathrow and the medical teams.

Thank you very much, take that. Morning, Clive.

-Aircraft stand-bys and risks for the day, please.

-Lima, Lima.

Lightning strike to repair, so it's going into the hangar this morning.

One of the variables Kevin has to contend with is the constant

servicing of the fleet, which takes aircraft out of operation.

The more grounded planes there are, the harder his day will be.

OK, good, thank you. Security?

In Male in the Maldives there's protests possible there,

so there's a crew advisory in place

for crews to avoid demonstrations where possible.

Political unrest can strand crews and their planes.

..and Rio, apparently the Brazilians have deployed a thousand troops

around about half a kilometre away from the crew hotel

so the crews have been moved away to Copacabana Beach for the time being.

-It's a tough job, someone's got to do it.

-It's tough, yeah!

Passenger groups, are there any issues, please?

-ON PHONE:

-4,600 departing today throughout the day.

A lot of busy flights this morning, very busy...

It's the school holidays. Passenger numbers are up

and so's the pressure.

OK, so what impact... If we don't get those, if we don't get cover

on those two areas, what's going to be the impact, please?

-ON PHONE:

-It's normally around the lunchtime period

where they struggle, when we start getting in the long-haul flights

-with heavy wheelchair loads.

-OK, good, thank you very much.

Well, not good, but you know what I mean.

We've got quite a few storms around at the moment. We've got

Hurricane Raymond which is currently to the west of Acapulco.

Its strongest gusts will be tomorrow around about midday

of about 130 knots...

Kevin must keep track of whatever the weather throws at him

so his schedule doesn't get blown off course.

And finally a couple of volcanoes we're watching,

we're looking at one on the Kamchatka peninsula.

The danger is, if there's a significant eruption there

it pushes that ash down into North America.

Thank you all very much, have a good day,

shout if anything changes. Cheers.

We start the day with spare resources in all areas

so we start with spare aircraft,

we start with spare flying cabin crew.

That gives us the flexibility we need

to tweak the programme as and when we need.

In the daily rush to win customers,

the airline has a lot staked on its service...

..and its particularly British style.

-Lovely. Come over and we'll get you all checked in.

-OK, fab.

-OK?

Ex-Harrods manager David Page has spent 18 years

honing his check-in manner.

Today is the start of the half-term. All the flights are very busy

and so it's going to be very interesting.

About 45,000 passengers travelling through.

It's going to be quite a lot of pressure today, I would say.

-Sir, where are you travelling to?

-Madrid.

-Madrid? What time?

-Er, 9.10.

-9.10? Er, 512... OK.

Actually, sir, it's not all right

because the flight's closed for check-in.

So they're not going to be able to check you in now.

But I can't check you in for this one

because it closed a while ago now.

Some people get very, very upset, and they're very stressed

and they're going away on business, they might be going to a funeral,

or might be going to a friend's wedding

and of course, you know, time is the element.

Right, we need to be very, very quick.

OK, chaps, we're going to drop your bags off quickly then you need

to go straight through to the gate.

So just follow me with the bags and we'll send them down.

Bit tight, I'm going to have to run.

If they'd stayed in the queue there's a possibility

they could have missed their flight, that was...

In the right place at the right time to recover that.

If you've got any baby milk,

it's in the bottle, it's already made up? Or is it powdered?

-Powdered.

-Right, OK, that's absolutely fine.

-If it wasn't they might ask you just to taste it.

-OK.

Hello. OK, do you want to just come over?

Do you like kids?

There's always the famous line,

"I couldn't eat a whole one," isn't there?

Um, I do like children, yeah, of course. Everybody does.

-Plus you can stretch out and have a little sleep.

-26 or 27.

So you've sat there before? Yeah?

OK then. Say goodbye to Mum and we'll get you through, yeah?

During the holidays the airline looks after

thousands of children travelling on their own.

They're known as Skyflyers.

There you go, all ready?

OK, when we get through wave to your mum, yeah? When we go through.

All right, have a good flight.

-Is that channel?

-Channel? Chanel.

-Chanel.

-You like Chanel, yeah?

-Well, yeah.

-Expensive.

For an extra charge, trained chaperones known as aunties

and uncles will escort children to the plane to meet the cabin crew.

-Someone will meet you, someone like me will meet you in Nice, OK?

-OK.

-All right, hi there. So, Lewis.

-Smashing.

-Have I said that right?

-Loic.

-Loic!

-Perfect.

The airline becomes a sort of boarding school in the sky.

Five-year-old Sienna

is one of the airline's youngest solo fliers.

She lives in France with her mum

and travels on her own between London and Paris once a month.

-What's your name?

-Sienna.

-Sienna? Oh, I love that name, Sienna.

-Sienna, how are you today? How are you?

-Good.

-You're good.

Let me see your nail varnish. Ooh, that's nice.

-Mummy's not going to be very happy with that.

-Is she not?

-Thank you.

Sienna, this is Carolyn and she's going to take you.

Sweetheart... Are you going to be strong, sweetheart?

-SIENNA SOBS

-Sienna, darling, you'll be fine. You're coming with me.

I'm going to come with you as well, sweetheart. OK, thank you.

All right, take care. Bye.

You have to say bye here.

Sienna? You'll be fine, sweetheart.

They'll treat you like a special little princess on board.

-Yeah! OK? Love you, darling.

-How long is she going for?

-She lives there.

-Oh!

-She's going back home.

-How was that?

-It's always so hard.

But she'll be fine, she'll be fine.

She does love it, she does love the service and they do treat them

like a little princess.

So, yeah, she'll be fine, she'll be fine.

Hopefully it won't be too long now, you'll be back with Mummy

and she can have all the presents that you have for her.

I've been a single dad for a week, which is...you know,

lots of matching clothes with dresses and lots of pink and stuff.

I think I'm going to the pub, to be fair, I think I deserve a pint.

Services like Skyflyers are part of an attempt to differentiate

themselves from no-frills carriers like Ryanair and easyJet

who dispensed with such extras,

focused on cheap ticket prices

and soared ahead in overall passenger numbers.

Madam, where are you travelling to? Where are you travelling to?

-Russia.

-To Russia? Where is your baggage? Your suitcase?

-Are you just checking in this?

-This one and that one.

I'll just put a note you're bringing the buggy

with you to the gate.

Oh, you've got him well trained.

-British Airways, one time they completely lost...

-His baggage.

..my bag. And after six months I received a refund,

partial refund.

So we try not to check our baggage.

Four floors below is the airport's baggage system.

Calm today, it was chaos here when the terminal opened in 2008.

Thousands of bags were separated from their owners.

The day was branded a national embarrassment.

Today, far fewer passengers leave without their luggage.

With 11 miles of conveyor belts,

Terminal 5's baggage system is one of the largest in the world.

We've got 421 bags estimated. I'm hoping we don't have a cruise.

They don't normally take one bag with them, cos obviously they have

their gowns and their suits for their captain's table dinner.

No, Rambo's come out again.

Everyone dreads Lagos, like, everyone dreads Lagos

but other than that... Nah, everyone dreads Lagos.

It's just the heavier bags. If it's heavier than 32

you usually get someone to come and help you lift it.

20-year-old baggage apprentice Nial Barry

is one of 225 handlers on shift today.

Rusty, my nickname is, cos everyone calls me Nails,

so Rusty Nail. That's what it is, yeah.

Everyone's got nicknames. They always say,

you know when you've made it in BA cos you get a nickname.

Look, look at these two, look. Old Boggit and Scarper.

18 years I've worked with these two.

Golf lover Greg Breslin is one of over 50 crew leaders.

Each crew is responsible for loading up to five flights a shift.

Ever since 9/11 the bags get screened more,

they have high security levels, they'll go downstairs

where they'll get X-rayed, then they'll go up onto the conveyors

that are switching around above our heads here.

As and when they get to our four belts,

they'll go down their correct ones.

The system is pretty much all automated now

so there's not a lot of human contact with the bags.

Everything's so much more secure these days. Let's go, Mr Sweeney.

We're off to stand 454.

You don't want any problems, you want everything to go sweetly, but...

..Mr Sweeney is a bit of a Jonah, so...

We're missing a few people,

so one of the people is having their bag searched.

Security have identified something in the bag that they want

to just check out.

I have to go, really sorry.

-What's happening with this one at the door?

-We're waiting on the police.

Apparently there's a firearm inside this bag, so the police

are going to come to make sure it's legal to be transported.

All firearms have to go through additional security

and you have to have special licences.

So obviously that's travelling with this passenger.

The police will come

and it'll come down, and I'll just stick it in the bin right at the end,

so we've got 15 minutes, so in theory I'm supposed to wrap up in five.

The passengers have to be traced

so they can open the case in the presence of a police officer.

OK, what's the passenger's name again? Sorry? 37, Juliet...

37 Juliet.

-So, what's the problem?

-There's a firearm in there.

So what are you going to do, open the bag now?

They haven't called yet, no?

-That's right, yeah.

-What is it? What's inside it?

SHE SIGHS IMPATIENTLY

The suspected firearm is just part of a child's Halloween costume.

Yeah. Fantastic. That's great.

Kieran, can you stay with the gun?

The fancy dress accessory has held the flight up

for a quarter of an hour.

Finally the toy gun is back in the suitcase.

You can't take a chance on things like that.

Safety is our prime thing, that's my role here, is to make sure

that that aircraft is safe and secure above anything else.

-ON TELEVISION:

-Our customers believe that our professional standards

will deliver them to their destination in comfort and safety.

17 months into their training,

these cadet pilots are being reminded of the stakes.

Maybe you have just been downright lucky, but maybe, one day,

when you least expect it, your luck will run out.

Most people believe the unthinkable will never happen to them.

If we are to avoid tragedy striking us again,

you have to go looking for trouble.

It's normal for us

to be introduced to things like air disasters,

cos it's good to put it into perspective.

I think the danger is, people get complacent about flying

because you see so many aircraft taking off every day,

you see so many people going on holiday, and for people

it's become almost a normal way of life.

And you forget that if you have these tiny slip-ups,

these major disasters can occur.

-RADIO:

-Speedbird, speedbird, 95, 95...

In 2008, both engines on flight BA38 from Beijing stopped

because of a fuel problem on its approach to Heathrow.

The lives of 152 passengers and crew were in the hands of its pilot.

He got the plane down just inside the airport's perimeter

without a single fatality, an extraordinary display of skill.

Most pilots will never experience such major engine problems,

at least not for real.

What's the plan today, Andy?

We're doing EFATO, so Engine Failure After Take-Off,

and other emergencies,

so we're basically just learning how to fly it with only one engine.

4-2 thrust blue. Thrust set.

Each cadet pilot has to deal with engine problems in a simulator

before they'll be allowed to fly passengers for real.

-Rotate. Engine fire.

-BEEPING

BEEP

Positive climb.

Gear up.

'Being told "engine one on fire" is actually a trigger

'for going through our drills.'

OK, got an engine one fire.

-OK.

-How does that feel trim-wise?

-Yeah, fine.

'Rather than being sort of nervous and scared about it,

'it just hits you, and you go, "Right, I need to do this, this, this,

'"and then we'll all be safe".'

Snatched it a bit too fast on the rotation rate,

so then I released it too quickly so it dropped quite a lot.

And do you know what, it's good that you've witnessed that.

At British Airways we train our test engine failure fly-in

every six months,

and that ensures that the guys have got top-class skills

and that they're able to competently

and confidently handle an engine failure.

OK, so just let me know

when you've settled down and we'll fly it down to a minimum.

-OK, I think I'm ready.

-Excellent. You have control.

I have control.

Is it a common occurrence?

No, not at all. And this is the reason that we have the

training so often, is because it requires precise handling

but it doesn't happen very often.

Minimum. Go round. Go round, flat.

Go round, flat.

'The only way that we can keep the skills up

'is by training in the simulator every six months.

Don't sink, don't sink.

15 years I've flown and I've not had engine failure,

touch wood.

-And do you want one though?

-No.

-V1.

-BEEPING

Continue engine fire, rotate.

Positive climb. Gear up.

BEEP

-How does that feel trim-wise?

-Yeah, quite good.

Lovely rudder control on the sense line. Perfect, really nicely done.

So, um, if I could have the gear down, please. Power break on.

BEEPING

OK, absolutely great with the rudder control,

absolutely immaculate.

Every simulator session is four gruelling hours.

Cadets have 12 of these in total.

We didn't quite get everything done we wanted to get in

but I'm sure we can pick it up in the next couple of details.

'When you come out you are absolutely exhausted.

'It's really, really tiring.

'Your mind itself just feels really tired

'on the amount of new information and the amount of practice

'and concentration that you've had to put in on this four-hour session.'

See how we're doing for time.

If Andy passes and makes it to his first flight,

his starting salary will be just over £30,000.

In time, that could rise to over £100,000.

All right, cool.

Baggage is good money but the pilots is GOOD money, yeah.

So that's about it, but no... Pilots, you get pilots that

come down here, they say hello, they talk to everyone.

No, I wouldn't say they're posh, no. You get good and bad in everyone.

There's probably baggage handlers you'd think, "Oh, my God, he..."

Do you know what I mean?

People will probably think baggage handlers are all common.

Pilots you'll see, there probably is a few posh ones.

I just think, do you know what, when you've worked as hard as they have,

and, yeah, and you've got that much responsibility on a flight,

you can be who you want to be.

Competition for lucrative long-haul passengers is fierce,

so the airline has to use every possible advantage to encourage

people to fly with them instead of rival carriers.

One such advantage is the ability to co-ordinate connecting flights

in and out of its hub at Heathrow...

Effectively before operational decisions

we are still using the Fico weather.

..flying passengers in from around Europe and feeding them on to

long-haul departures,

and transferring intercontinental arrivals

out onto its shorter, European flights.

On the 143 today there are 49 passengers inbound off the 098.

Right.

Are you able, please, to have a look to see where in the system they are?

With a third of all its passengers making these transfers,

it desperately needs the connections to work.

Get it wrong, and long-haul passengers could be tempted

to fly with other airlines through different countries.

It's another challenge for Kevin.

By my calculations they've got below minimum connection time.

Hello, sir.

At the gate, Toni Friend is boarding some of the late passengers.

She's hoping all will make it.

-Can I look at your passport, sir?

-You may.

Thank you very much indeed. Enjoy your trip.

Thank you for choosing British Airways.

12 to come. Are we going to get them?

I don't know. She's just put the last call out.

F12, the yellow key.

TANNOY: This flight is closed and waiting to depart.

Well, one never knows really, but you always get a few passengers

who are held up at security, or they're connecting to this flight

and they've got caught up in connections, or the flight's

come in late from another terminal, so it can happen.

Hello, sir.

And if you just go round, sir. That's good.

With just 12 minutes till push-back,

Toni is on the hunt for four missing passengers.

Are you going to Miami?

-No.

-Thank you.

-Perhaps next year...

Are you going to Miami?

-No.

-No, OK, thank you.

No. Not looking good, is it?

The nightmare of all nightmares is if we start getting red bags,

which is when a passenger basically just doesn't turn up

for its flight. And it happens a lot.

We've got a red bag. Happy days.

-We've got loads of red bags.

-We've got loads of red bags.

Four red bags.

I think it is red for danger.

It doesn't mean it is red.

Now the bags are off, the passengers won't be flying.

All I know is, I take the bags off.

I don't deal with passengers, thankfully.

-That's the dispatcher's call.

-Why thankfully?

It's hard enough as it is, let alone dealing with passengers.

All our passengers are absolutely wonderful

and nobody misses a flight intentionally

and we certainly don't want them to miss.

We want to get them on their way. Ah.

-Are you going to Miami?

-Uh-huh.

I'm very, very sorry... I'm really sorry.

Sir, I'm really, really sorry but you've missed the flight.

Yeah, but it's not my...

I know, I know. I'm so sorry, especially having you.

You don't want to miss your flight. It's a long day anyway.

The four missing passengers have arrived, but their flight has left.

HE SPEAKS IN SPANISH

We have 300-odd people on that flight

and how long do you hold it, waiting for people,

when you don't know how far or how long they're going to be?

They might be shopping, they could be anywhere.

Hello, it's Ellie. Hello. We've got a 15-minute delay on the Miami.

It's a shame, but all the delays cost the company money

so we have to be as quick as we can to get the aircraft flying.

A delay of just 15 minutes can knock on through the schedule

and cost tens of thousands of pounds.

We've got four seats for you, so...

Yes, you're going today.

Can I help? Yes?

Let's go for a lie-down.

Don't stall.

Seat belt, Mr Sweeney.

Do you know your way back?

It's the longest Miami in history, isn't it?

Back in the terminal, David is on the lookout for people to help.

I'm fortunate to be one of the few staff

that's got three golden tickets,

which is what gold card holders give to us

when you've achieved really high standards of service.

Sir, are you OK? Are you all checked in?

Gold cards are held by the airline's most frequent flyers.

Only they have the special privilege of awarding staff a golden ticket.

No, we can get you all checked in. Where are you travelling to?

-Hong Kong.

-These are your three baggage receipts.

Keep those nice and safe.

Would you happen to have my frequent flyer number in there?

I'll just check for you.

-But there is a lounge in that concourse?

-There is, over at B, yes.

Here you go, there's £15. Thank you.

A golden ticket is the airline's equivalent to a gold star

on a school report.

There was a little old lady... Sounds like the cliche, doesn't it?

..the little old lady going to see her daughter,

somewhere in Europe, I can't remember now,

and she was very upset. She'd recently lost her husband.

I took her through to the lounge, sat in there with her,

had a cup of tea with her for about an hour, calmed her down,

went back and collected her, to take her to her gate, like a couple

of hours later, and again it was the gold card holder sitting

in the lounge that had recognised that, and came and said, "I want

"you to have this, you've looked after the old lady, and well done."

I'm always on the prowl. And it's not about that.

I just feel that it makes you... You know, when they give them to you,

it makes you proud that you know you've done a good job.

It's not about getting the next golden ticket, it's just

about being consistent across the board, looking after the passengers.

-OK.

-Do put that on there.

And that very heavy bag.

It's a porter's service, isn't it? Right, OK.

If they were giving out knighthoods of customer service,

I'd like to think I was at the front of the queue for that.

Yes, I'd put those away safe because you're not going to need

those till you get to the gate, all right? Take care.

Thank you, bye-bye, Mr Bushby.

Why are you somebody who is...

-Special?

-Yeah.

I don't know, probably if they could clone me and have a thousand of me,

they'd be very, very happy. But, I don't know.

It's just something within me that I've got,

of delivering what they want.

David may meet and greet passengers,

but someone else has to pick up after them.

The airline's unseen workforce of contract cleaners

are known as aircraft groomers.

Mr Williams? Milk tray over there,

and this milk tray. Clean. Thank you.

Today's lead aircraft groomer is Christina Mattah,

a Romanian handball player and trained accountant.

She's in charge of a team of 11 who have a target of just 75 minutes

to clean this aircraft.

It's coming from India. It's very, very dirty.

It's taken more than one hour and a half because all over it's messy,

food on the floor, on the galley, everywhere.

If it's coming from America it's all right.

We can finish even in one hour, one hour and 20 minutes.

I think people would be shocked at some of the states

that the aircraft arrive in.

Certain things that I cannot mention. We actually find...

One aircraft I was called out by my crew because there was actually...

I'm going to say it - faeces actually in the club seat, on the floor,

and the area had just been taped off.

So I actually came and cleared it up.

Have you done your lockers yet?

Former restaurant owner Paul Boswell has come on board to check

the standard of cleaning.

He oversees the cleaning of up to 95 long-haul flights each day.

Has that been reported? Have you told Christina?

The behaviour of people, I think once they get on board,

maybe they're in that holiday mode, some people, and it's like,

"OK, I can do what I want, I'm relaxing," but really?

They throw food on the floor, drinks are spilled, take no ownership

at all, but at the end of the day, that's our job, we clear it up.

I'm going to go to first class,

because obviously prime passengers, as well as club, they're all

fine, but cos they pay that extra bit as well, it has to be tip-top.

-<

-Are you a clean freak at home?

-Yes. Immaculate.

One of my specialities, I'm afraid.

People say my house is like a show house, even though it's old.

HE LAUGHS

-You done? Everything?

-We ain't got enough blankets.

With the plane cleaned, time for last-minute cabin checks.

Sometimes you could get a window blind stuck and when you try

and free it, it breaks, so we have to replace it.

Engineer Sajit Hussein is looking for any obvious defects.

Sometimes, the toilets are not flushing, they are blocked up,

so we make sure that they work OK as well, like, last-minute.

Problems caused by the strange things found in aircraft

toilets make their way back to the control room for lead

engineer Steve Duffy to deal with.

Well, we've got in the order of between 2,100

and 2,200 toilets across all our aircraft and on an average day,

we will have between four

and ten unserviceable across all of those aircraft.

In most cases that we have toilet problems, there's actually

something in the toilet that shouldn't be in the toilet.

Whether it will be a towel, a book...

Gucci wallet is the funniest thing I've seen down there.

It all adds to the overflow of problems Kevin has to

face on a daily basis.

Beneficial, if you can ride a knock every now and again.

There will be days when you will feel that there's an awful lot

being thrown at you.

There are an awful lot of things within aviation that can influence,

and the vast majority of them are not necessarily controlled by us.

So there is a front that's going to come through tomorrow that's probably

going to drop a load of weather on us, rain and stuff like that.

As well as passengers, the airline flies

hundreds of thousands of tonnes of cargo every year.

Most is carried in the bellies of its passenger flights,

the rest in dedicated freight planes.

Scheduling them falls to Kevin's team.

Today, they've been asked to fit in a special flight.

Welcome, everybody, and thank you very much, our colleagues

from Oxfam and Save The Children, for coming to the meeting.

It's incredibly challenging, getting stuff to where it needs to be, as you can...

You know as well as we do. This is really vital to get this stuff out, so certainly thank you from us.

The operations team are meeting with charities Oxfam

and Save The Children to discuss a problem 7,000 miles away.

REPORTER: This is just the beginning of a relief operation that has no

clear end in sight.

Rajini Vaidyanathan, BBC News, the Philippines.

The airline has already chartered four planes to the relief

operation in the Philippines. They're providing this one for free.

But there's a problem.

The company wants to fly the cargo to Manila,

but Oxfam and Save The Children want to fly it to Cebu,

500 miles closer to the heart of the disaster.

The problem we have with Cebu, which is...

The airport itself, we can get down on the airport,

land on the runway and we can taxi.

The latest estimate's we'll be waiting for around 15 hours

to have cargo offloaded.

And that's something that we really would struggle with.

The nearest airport at Cebu is overwhelmed in the wake

of the storm.

The operations team are concerned the aircraft may get stuck there.

Difficulty will be the cargo, if it goes to Manila, may end up

having arrived in the Philippines, but then it may end up being stuck.

And while the goods may offload quicker in Manila,

to actually physically get them to the end beneficiaries, I think

we're going to be in a lot better position, a stronger position, if it does go to Cebu.

In a nutshell, it's about the provision of water,

the provision of sanitation, toilets, communications equipment,

and also we're providing what are called pee-poo bags. Um...

Which is pretty much what it sounds like.

It's a bag that you pee and poo into, except that it has a chemical

in it which will very quickly turn it into utilisable compost.

I was told we had reserves.

It's another challenge for operations.

So we'll leave it an open time till 15:00 and then if not,

we have a plan B.

'By the nature of the events which we are trying to support, they're

'often to parts of the world that we don't necessarily routinely fly.'

So some of our flight planning teams will have to work exceptionally

hard to find routes that we can fly safely into these areas

and get these guys to where they need to go

but also back again with as little disruption to the remaining

schedule as possible.

Oxfam will take any help, whichever airport is agreed.

The type of planes which BA has provided for us,

the cost per hour of an asset like that is extremely high,

so I can see 15 hours for a plane to be sitting there, doing

nothing, for a professional mover of freight like British Airways is...

Well, it's a nightmare for them.

We're not compelled to support these organisations.

It's something we choose to do

because we see the benefit that we can bring, the facilities

and the resources and the people that we have who work for BA, that

can help and support often situations that other organisations can't.

After almost two years,

Andy and Joel have finished their course and passed.

Today, they'll get their wings.

Andy, pleased to meet you.

It's almost two years to get to this point and obviously,

it's just sort of the end of the beginning, really.

There we go, how's that?

It is one of the proudest and happiest days of my life.

It's almost a badge of honour to show what we've come through

and to show that we are a professional BA pilot.

Andy and Joel are now first officers.

Today, they'll both fly Airbus A320s for the first time,

with up to 162 passengers on board.

It's the day before Christmas today.

But the anticipation is much greater than any Christmas I've ever,

ever had before, to be honest.

Obviously, we've got full pilot's uniform on, first officer,

which means I get two stripes on my sleeve.

At the end of the day, it's just a uniform and obviously, I'm incredibly

proud to wear it, but...it's just a normal person underneath.

It makes no difference to who I actually am.

Before flying,

they'll both be thoroughly briefed on the route by two senior pilots.

-Morning, how are you doing?

-Very well, thanks.

-James.

-Andy.

-So, how are you feeling?

-Good, nervous. But excited.

-Good. OK.

What I propose to do is perhaps get you to be handling sector,

on the initial sector out to Geneva. Strongly supported by us.

Does that sound like a plan?

-That sounds great.

-Excellent. OK. Terrific.

-It's a bit like the first day at school.

-Yeah, quite a lot like that!

-<

-Have you got butterflies?

-Yes, butterflies is a good word.

It's kind of a nice kind of nervousness.

I think it's more not knowing exactly how it will be than

being nervous - I can't do the job - if you see what I mean.

-It's all pretty much like the simulator.

-Yeah.

Only a bit more time pressure and a bit more going on outside.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. And your first customers are about to get on the aeroplane.

-Yeah, that's quite exciting.

-That's quite exciting, isn't it?

-That's what it's all about.

-Yeah, very exciting.

-Absolutely.

Happy about how to get your seat in the right place?

Yeah...

You're going to fly the departure

so what would you like to look at for your departure...?

-I suppose we want to have punters, really?

-Yep.

So, Andy's fully qualified in aircraft

so he'll be doing the take-off and landing today.

Er, I won't mention it to the customers, simply because, erm,

Andy is fully qualified to be flying this aeroplane but just in case

there's anybody nervous around, then we probably wouldn't want to

say it's their very first day flying with passengers on board.

-OK.

-Yeah, all right. It sounds great.

Great. So, gentlemen, we're going to start to get quite busy now so, er,

we'll say thank you very much and... and we'll leave it there.

Ably assisted on the flight deck today by First Officer Joel Garabidian -

we'll do our very best to get you all under way to

Geneva just as swiftly and, of course, as safely as possible.

Thank you.

This is your First Officer, Andrew McKellan, speaking.

Just a quick update from the flight deck. Er, as you may have noticed

we've started our initial decent down to 31,000 feet.

In a minute we're just crossing over the Alps, er,

there should be some good views out the left side and right side.

We've Monte Bianco, or Mont Blanc, currently sitting out to our left.

Er, I hope you're enjoying your flight and, er,

we'll speak to you again once we get on the ground in Pisa. Thanks very much.

While Andy and Joel got away on time,

back in Operations another flight's not so lucky.

Sorry, Kev, the 552 is back on stand to offload a passenger who's

-having a panic attack.

-Panic attack?

-Panic attack.

-OK, good, thank you very much.

It's not abnormal, it does happen quite often,

it'll happen because passengers, er,

when they actually get to the reality of sat at the end

of the runway and the engines start powering up, and, you know, they

think they're going to be OK but they then realise they won't.

Apparently she's been sitting in the terminal for about five hours,

and then once she got on board she had a panic attack

-and they had to go back onto stand.

-That's fine.

We don't ever want to take a passenger, er,

who doesn't want to go, but the knock-on effect is if they have bags

in the hold, due to security we won't be able to fly with those bags

in the hold, so the bags will have to be offloaded and that passenger

will have to be returned to the airport - a team will have to meet

that passenger and take them back, so it can shake the plan a bit

and cause a degree of work for the ground staff at the station.

It's 1am

at Stansted Airport, where the airline's biggest cargo plane

is landing.

Yeah, this is it. It's coming in.

The company's decided to risk sending their donated flight

directly to Cebu.

They're keen it doesn't go unnoticed.

Mary Barry, the airline's charities officer,

is here to oversee its departure.

I'm very excited, actually!

I've been sort of worried that we weren't going to get it

into Cebu - it's really good to know that it's getting as close

to the disaster region as we can make it, really, which is fantastic.

It's like a spaceship.

The airline's sending their cargo expert, Steve Rook,

to make sure the aircraft is turned around as quickly as possible.

As the aid gathers momentum there's a lot of freight,

a lot of cargo going into Cebu, so it has been quite congested.

I'll be there on the ground, hopefully, to get this aircraft serviced as quickly as possible

-so it can return to its normal schedule.

-Knocking heads together?

Not so much knocking heads together, but using a calm approach

and explaining to people what exactly is required.

Mainly sanitary equipment, toilets, latrines and suchlike.

There's also been a very kind donation by the Queen of Spain

of med...medical supplies.

The Queen has requested a photograph of her shipment being

loaded on the aircraft.

What's your photography like?

Poor, that's why I've got a professional doing it for me!

And I believe the Queen also wants a photograph of the offload in Cebu.

It's a special moment, isn't it, really? You know, it really is.

There's a lot of hard work that's sort of gone into pulling all

this together and then just to sort of see it coming together is

just really fantastic.

We'll be sending out the basics of life,

and not to have them must be absolutely horrendous,

so I truly believe this makes a difference, I really, really do.

120 tonnes of emergency aid

is on its way to the Philippines.

12 hours after the plane lands there, it's scheduled to be

back in the system on a commercial cargo flight from Hong Kong.

'I'm very fortunate that I live in a comfortable environment

'where, you know, you only need to look on the news that around the

'world there are people who are far worse off than us,'

and if I think I can come into work and do something that will help those people and

make their situation better, I feel very important - very fulfilling.

After a quick turnaround in Geneva, Joel has flown the return leg

of his maiden voyage and is about to land back at Heathrow.

-How was that?

-Oh, it was amazing.

Did you land it?

Yes, that was my... that was my landing.

-Good landing?

-Sorry?

-Good landing?

Yes, it was lovely, actually. Went a little bit high towards the end

but it...it recovered nicely so, very happy.

Thank you.

Quite an intense experience so recalling the whole thing is, er,

probably going to be quite difficult, but... I think

I'll remember the feeling rather than the actual experience itself.

-Bit like a wedding day?

-Exactly, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, bye.

Andy is also landing at the end of his first flight.

He's flown both legs of the trip to Pisa.

I think I still need to finesse my landing technique.

Hopefully I can get them a bit smoother.

It finally does feel real.

It's nice sort of being in control of a big aircraft. It does

sort of empower you as such and it is, it's a really nice feeling.

Joel and Andy are the first cadet pilots trained by the airline

to land at Heathrow for over a decade.

It's hard to express actually, I think, how tiring it is,

you know, doing what he's doing, today, coming in here

for his first day commercially. There's an awful lot going on.

He's learning at a great rate, actually, which is

the aim of the game.

After flying this I'm now off to jump on a different aircraft

to fly off to Pisa for the night, er, sorry, Helsinki for the night.

Andy is now part of BA...

-Any thoughts?

-Erm, to be honest, I'm getting quite tired now.

OK. Let's all do that then.

..one of 40,000 employees in a very British airline.

Until you move around the airline and meet the various different people,

you don't necessarily comprehend how much it takes

everyone to deliver their little bit to make the whole picture work.

People do feel like they belong to BA and they are part of BA

and that's why people will stay, er, stay working for BA.