BA risks second ‘tail-fin fiasco’

British Airways’ chief executive, Bob Ayling, shares the knack of turning defeat into apparent victory with Slobodan Milosovic. Never more so than when he disclosed BA’s capitulation on the issue of Britishness.

I predicted the BA corporate identity fiasco and I also suggested that BA, as a temporary measure, immediately stop painting the planes with the ethnic motif and use instead the Concorde flag motif. It appears my advice has been followed to the letter (after extensive research, I am sure, and debate by BA).

However, if this action is not treated as a temporary measure only, the result will be the second biggest fiasco. The BA fleet will be divided into BA official carriers bearing the flag motif and BA charter carriers with the ethnic motif. Will business customers want to fly charter on a full fare?

But credit must go to BA’s PR department, which has succeeded in turning the &£60m disaster around. The suggestion that with a small investment of only &£2m it will repaint the rest of the fleet with the flag livery has been much easier to digest. Will its shareholders agree?

Marcello Minale

Chairman

Minale Tattersfield & Partners

Surrey