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25 April 2024

BA scraps ad campaign over Heathrow chaos

Published
By Agencies

 

British Airways has been forced to pull an advertising campaign for its expensive new terminal at London Heathrow because of the chaos there since it opened, the Financial Times said Saturday.


The business daily said the national flag carrier had planned to trumpet the speed with which passengers could move through Terminal 5 in a television, newspaper and Internet publicity blitz next week.

But BA decided to delay the campaign, produced by advertising firm Bartle Bogle Hegarty, after the supposedly state-of-the-art baggage handling system broke down because of computer glitches.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled since the $8.7-billion terminal opened on Thursday, delaying passengers and leaving many others without their luggage.

The FT quoted BA as saying the ad campaign had been postponed until "later in the year", quoting experts as saying the problems could dent the airline's brand image in the short term. (AFP)