BA cancels Terminal 5 ad campaign amid chaos

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 28-Mar-08, 11:00

LONDON - British Airways has postponed a multimillion-pound ad campaign to promote Heathrow's Terminal 5 after yesterday's first day of operation was plunged into chaos by problems with the baggage system.

The airline, which has sole use of Heathrow's showpiece £4.3bn terminal, was planning to launch a heavyweight TV and press campaign next week created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

The launch has been cancelled and a new date will be set for later in the year. A spokeswoman said the campaign will roll out once the terminal delivers "the standards of service passengers expect."

By mid-afternoon yesterday, BA had cancelled 33 of the 534 services it planned to operate from the terminal.

In a statement, the company blamed the difficulties on a number of factors, including delays at the staff car park and security hold-ups, which affected baggage handlers.

In the early evening, passengers waiting in Terminal 5's departure hall were told that no one would be permitted to fly with their hold baggage for the remainder of the day.

Other first-day glitches included escalators breaking down and pay machines at the car park not working properly.

The problems are an embarrassment to the airport's owner, BAA, which had hoped the opening of the terminal would bring an end to so-called "Heathrow hassle".

Comments

Matthew Rhodes - 28/03/2008

My colleague was on a flight to Vancouver yesterday and had to leave (and arrive) for a week's skiing without any luggage. As a firm that specialises in customer engagement and advocacy we're interested in what the long-term effect of this will be for BA - bad experiences like this are spoken about a lot more than good ones! Read about Helen's experiences here: http://blog.freshnetworks.com/?p=41