Laker's BA case dismissed

A court in Florida has thrown out a case brought against British Airways by Sir Freddie Laker, the longstanding opponent of the airline, over the allocation of take-off and landing slots at Gatwick Airport.

Sir Freddie had complained that BA effectively controlled the allocation of slots at the airport. Dick Wyatt, a BA employee, is this year's elected chairman of Gatwick Airport Co-ordination, which allocates slots. The US judge said the Laker action suffered from "both a procedural and substantive defect". BA said last night that it did not exert undue influence on the slot-allocation process and had just 26 per cent of slots at Gatwick.