BA needs to take action to save brand, say experts

Troubled British Airways will need to take drastic action to salvage its brand reputation PR expects have warned.

The airline has suffered from flight cancellations, lost baggage resulting in negative media coverage since the opening of Terminal Five on March 27.

The new £4.3 billion terminal was meant to herald a new era in air travel, but shortly after opening the facility descended into chaos as the state of art baggage handling system broke down.

One week on and the terminal is still not operating at a 100 per cent capacity. Today (April 2) 32 flights have been cancelled. A further 34 will be grounded tomorrow.

Meanwhile around 17,000 pieces of luggage remain separated from their owners and are being sent to Milan to be sorted.

BA’s Press Office has come under fire for a lack of communication and guidance as trouble developed on the opening day.

An attempt was made to appease angry travellers by putting Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, in front the media in the early evening. He read a prepared statement but then exited before taking questions.

“The brand has been damaged by this,” BA’s Head of corporate commnications, Julia Simpson has admitted.

An apology on the airline’s website currently reads, “We are extremely sorry for the disruption our customers flying from Terminal 5 have experienced since the building opened.

”We accept the level of service we have provided has not been good enough. We are working hard to overcome the initial operational difficulties we have encountered.”

But what should they have done differently? And what next?

Chairman of the Bell Pottinger Group and an ex-director of communications for British Airways, Kevin Murray, said it was important for BA to be delivering promises that they could keep to abate passengers’ anger and get to the bottom of dealing with the real problem.

“Internal communications are critical when staff are in the front line dealing with passengers’ grievances,” he said. “There’s the issue of passengers with lost bags but also the issue of passengers with flights coming up.

“I have spoken to dozens of businessmen who are turning to other airlines because they can’t risk their flight being cancelled.”

He added, “This whole affair will cost BA tens of millions. There’s not only the direct costs of now but a lot of other passengers are choosing other airlines and, if they like the experience, may stick with them and stay away from BA.”

Murray went on to say that when he worked in the airline industry it was as important to have your baggage arrive, as it was from getting from A to B.  The thousands now without their baggage would be looking for compensation, he warned.

“BA’s number one priority must be to fix the problem,” he said. “Nothing else matters. Until this happens, passengers will continue to think twice about travelling from Terminal 5.”

“Travellers will not book a business trip or holiday unless they’re sure it will happen.”

On a more positive note Murray said that once the problems were resolved he believed there was enough “goodwill in the bank” to save BA’s fortunes.

However, he concluded that this would need to be supported with a big sales promotion, which would cost BA in itself.

Debbie Hindle, Managing Director of travel industry specialist PR agency, BGB, said that the global media impact of BA’s troubles had been “incredible”.

Speaking from Dubai she said the T5 chaos had raised concerns over expansion at the new Emirates Airport.

“There was a sense in the early stages that BA were concentrating on trying to solve the crisis, rather then communicating what was being done,” Hindle added. “They should have taken sympathetic action and communicated an apology much sooner.

“Willie Walsh’s admittance that this was not BA’s finest hour is a statement that may come back to haunt the airline in the future.”

From here on in, the airline needed to be absolutely open in its communications and take control, she said. It needed to act quickly to present an image of efficiency on the TV and web.

“In terms of rebuilding the brand, BA needs to focus on the positive and look at it’s planning, perhaps bringing forward some announcements,“ Hindle concluded.

“It needs to focus its communications on why BA is an airline you would want to travel with and work across the industry with tour operators and travel agents to make this happen.”

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