BA marketing director given wider remit

British Airways (BA) marketing and communications director Martin George has been given commercial development responsibilities as part of a restructure, with one of his first tasks being to cut his 700-strong staff by up to a quarter.

George is now director of marketing and commercial development and in addition to his original duties will be responsible for pricing and fleet strategy as the company develops low-cost flight offers.

Strategy director David Spurlock, who was responsible for the work, resigned suddenly at the end of October. His duties were undertaken by director of alliances Roger Maynard before being given to George as part of BA’s Future Shape and Size strategy review, unveiled last week.

George will have to reduce the headcount of his departments in line with BA’s announcement that it is to make 13,000 redundancies.

Senior positions being reviewed include those of head of advertising Jill Manton, head of brands Sue Moore, head of eBA Simon Parks-Smith, head of strategy Ava Eisenschimmel and UK and Ireland general marketing manager Jayne O’Brien.

George says the marketing budget has suffered a “very significant” cut but declines to give full details.

BA’s worldwide advertising budget this year is &£120m, says George. UK advertising spend in 2001 was &£11.3m (AC Nielsen/MEAL).

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