Outgoing President's Streak Of Angering Citizenry Continues Unabated

If you thought President George W. Bush's approval ratings in the United States were low, you might want to ask the opinions of any of the 40,000 travelers stranded at London's Heathrow Airport last week, as the president made a stopover at the busy European entry point.

According to The Associated Press, Heathrow operator BAA confirmed Tuesday that 32 arrivals and 36 departures -- almost all of them British Airways flights -- were canceled June 15-16, during Bush's final visit as president to England.

The company had no official numbers on how many flights were delayed, or otherwise inconvenienced... but says that works out to 40,000 passengers forced to make alternate plans, if only briefly.

"BAA, the airlines and other business partners at Heathrow did everything in their power to minimize disruption at the airport during George Bush's presidential visit," BAA said. "Despite our best efforts some disruption did occur, for which we apologize to passengers affected."

It's not uncommon for airport operations to come to a screeching halt when the President's in town, due to the necessarily tight security restrictions. But British Airways CEO Willie Walsh said the disruption in operations at Heathrow, the carrier's hub, wasn't necessary at all.

"The decision to allow President Bush and his fleet of aircraft to fly into Heathrow rather than a military base was one all of Heathrow's users could have done without," Walsh said in the airline's employee news letter. "I am also angry that this was allowed."

Perhaps that emotion might also be tempered by some relief, however... as this time, at least, delays at Heathrow had nothing to do with BA's problematic Terminal 5, angry supermodels, or enviromental protestors.

And hey... at least Bush didn't delay flights so he could get a haircut, unlike some OTHER US Presidents...

FMI: www.whitehouse.gov, www.ba.com, www.baa.com