BA boss defends start of charges for food and drink

But he insisted it was the right decision and predicted that “every airline in the world” will eventually do the same.

In a speech to the Aviation Club in central London, Mr Cruz claimed BA remains a “premium airline” but said customers expect low fares and “we don’t really make an apology” for becoming more efficient to compete with rivals such as easyJet and Ryanair.

Asked by former BA Concorde pilot John Hutchinson if he planned to change the “complete disaster” of a policy, Mr Cruz responded: “It was absolutely the right decision.”

He accepted that “it was very difficult at the beginning”, but said this was due to a “logistics issue that we had to deal with and it took us a number of months to get it to work”.

Mr Cruz, who joined BA in April last year, told the audience: “Low fares are popular and for many customers they are what they expect.

“But they don’t happen by magic. They happen because an airline has got itself in the right shape to be able to offer them.”

The carrier has been accused of turning itself into a budget operator in recent years, but Mr Cruz claimed it has a number of distinctive attributes which “in the hurly-burly of debate ... can easily be overlooked”.

Aviation consultant John Strickland said BA has to compete with low cost carriers while “upping its game” for the important premium fare segment.

“Whilst this is work in progress, BA is still the envy of many of its peers.