When it comes to cocking up the PR response to a crisis, British Airways has form.
The airline has been ridiculed for its reaction to last weekend’s meltdown at Gatwick and Heathrow, when a huge IT system failure forced it to cancel 800 flights, leaving 75,000 holidaymakers stranded.
The debacle had echoes of the opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 in 2008. Then, the baggage system broke down, causing chaos and providing the memorable sight of BA’s operations director Gareth Kirkwood retreating to a staff room to avoid taking questions from journalists. Kirkwood, 54, moved on soon after.
Julia Simpson, then head of PR at BA and now chief of staff at its parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), observed: “If a customer-facing operation disintegrates in front of the massed media, there is no PR guru in the world who can save your bacon.”
Her successor at BA can presumably take comfort from those words.
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Willie Walsh’s £1m knees‑up
The events of last weekend were a metaphorical kick in the goolies for Willie Walsh, IAG’s chief executive. He may soon get a physical one, too.
In December 2012, Walsh predicted that the Virgin Atlantic brand would disappear after America’s Delta bought the 49% stake owned by Singapore Airlines. Sir Richard Branson bet Walsh £1m it would still be there in five years.
Walsh, 55, said he didn’t have £1m, but offered the 66-year-old beardy an alternative, something that would hurt them equally — “a knee in the groin, maybe”.
The IAG boss now has six month to pray for Virgin Atlantic’s demise — or buy himself a cricket box.
Success is relative
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“He did as good a job as he could have done in the circumstances”
—Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways owner IAG, on BA’s boss Alex Cruz
Katja closes her account at HSBC
Katja Hall, head of external affairs at HSBC, is leaving the bank after only 18 months — and she wasn’t even in danger of having to join colleagues in Birmingham.
Hall, 44, is joining CMi, a mentoring institute that connects board-level executives with grandees such as Sir Roger Carr.
A “Swede by birth and a Brit by choice”, Hall arrived at HSBC in October 2015 after missing out on the top job at the CBI to McKinsey alumna Carolyn Fairbairn.
Yet with an imminent change of the guard at the Honkers and Shankers, perhaps Hall might have felt less at ease at Canary Wharf under incoming chairman Mark “Malcolm” Tucker than sweet-natured Douglas “Shall I put the kettle on?” Flint, who is leaving the bank after 22 years.
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Coincidentally, one of the chairman mentors at CMi happens to be one Douglas Flint.
Coventry gets cold shoulder
Anyone who enjoyed last year’s MTV Crashes festival at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena, which saw acts such as Basement Jaxx and Kaiser Chiefs play over two days, looked set to be disappointed this year. MTV threatened to cancel all future Crashes in Coventry as part of a row with the arena over money.
The US TV network accused Ricoh’s owner of failing to pay the £500,000 fee agreed for putting on the event, “whether in part or at all”. It filed a High Court claim demanding the sum, plus interest charged at 4% and £1m in damages.
Nick Eastwood, Ricoh’s deputy chairman, now confirms the dispute has been resolved and says the sides “have recently reached agreement on future event opportunities”. Just as well. Last week, Ricoh announced 18 “fantastic” new shows — including the Temperature Controlled Storage and Distribution Exhibition.
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Kaiser Chiefs it ain’t.
Funny business
