BA goes to war over your in-flight sarnie

THE boss of British Airways has fought back after a barrage of complaints over a decision to scrap free inflight sandwiches.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA- owner International Airlines Group, has faced claims the carrier is no better than its budget competitors Ryanair and EasyJet after it decided to charge for meals on short-haul economy flights.

BA sells a range of Marks & Spencer sandwiches, and travellers also have to pay for tea, coffee and alcohol.

It has caused customers to moan that it is no longer worth paying a premium for a BA flight compared to a budget rival.

Research by the Mail found a return flight to Malaga from Gatwick with British Airways with a cabin bag, gin and tonic, sandwich and a coffee in the first week of April will cost £260.65 – according to yesterday’s prices.

By comparison, a similar journey – but from Stansted, would cost £224.58 with EasyJet and £188.58 with Ryanair.

But as he unveiled the annual results yesterday, Walsh, 55, said: ‘You only need to travel with Ryanair and British Airways to appreciate the difference.

‘Consumers value what they get from BA. If they didn’t, you wouldn’t have customers or see the numbers growing. Sales on board have been well in excess of what we expected. It’s a greater, better choice of food.’

BA announced it was going to scrap free food on short-haul flights in September last year.

It replaced them with a selection of sandwiches from M&S, with the service being introduced from January.

At the time, a Ryanair spokesman joked: ‘We welcome BA’s conversion to the Ryanair way.’

The changes come as BA faces the prospect of an inter- continental fares war with trans-Atlantic rivals such as American Airlines promising to reduce fares, and newer carriers such as Norweigian offering to fly travellers to the US for as little as £69.

A price comparison of all the airlines showed that gin and tonics were the cheapest on EasyJet, while BA offered the best value cup of coffee.

IAG reported higher profits in the year to December 31, up more than 30pc to £2bn. But revenue slid 1.3pc to £ 16.8bn, and it warned the fall in the pound since Britain’s Brexit vote had delivered a £389m hit.

Walsh insisted he was ‘relaxed’ about Brexit. ‘People talk about this in the context of the UK and Europe but BA flies all around the world,’ he said. IAG has ben- efited from reduced cost thanks to the low oil price.

Walsh, who is due to be paid £2.4m for 2016, said: ‘It was a good performance in a challenging environment. In 2016, we carried more than 100m passengers – double the number British Airways and Iberia carried in 2010, a year before IAG was created.’

The group has been under pressure to offer low prices to compete with budget rivals and amid economic uncertainty. Revenue per passenger fell 5.4pc over the year.

George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘Despite holding a premium position in the sector, IAG has been caught up in the trend for lower fares as increasing supply squeezes prices.

‘However, with much of the supply coming in to the bottom of the pricing scale, there is an argument to say the group has a degree of insulation that more value-focused rivals lack.’

It announced a full year dividend of 23.5 euro cents per share, up 17.5pc on last year.

IAG shares rose yesterday 4.5pc or 22.5p to 527p.