Business Facts

The world’s first fully flat bed in business class was introduced by British Airways in 2000.

When rebranding goes wrong - British Airways and the Tail Fin disaster

British Airways – the World’s Favourite Airline – decided in 1997 to change their tailfin signature from the Union Jack colours to ones that would reflect the more cosmopolitan ethnic design in an attempt to move away from the ideas of Empire.

The new tailfins came from a myriad of places ranging from South Africa to Poland and China at an eye watering cost of £60m to rebrand the almost 300 strong fleet of aircraft.

Passengers and customers were not too happy. Some people felt that moving away from the core concept of BA being a British airline was a bit ludicrous. Sure it could and would be a global airline, but so is Air France!

A certain Margaret Thatcher draped her handkerchief over one of the designs calling it awful.

By 1999 the new deisgns were being replaced and returned to the more traditional look.

It may seem trivial, but the Union flag was easy to identify and again even though BA was privatised in 1987, it still is viewed as Britain’s national airline and usually a source of pride.

British Airways to fly to Chengdu

BA intend to offer a new 3 weekly flight to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, starting in next Autumn.

The flights will connect Heathrow to the city in south west China famous for being the home of the panda bear. British Airways CEO Willie Walsh believes that the new airport being built in Chengdu shows ‘vision and ambition’.

I have never been to Chengdu but I did visit Guangzhou (Canton) in April, and the engineering and infrastructure work going on was quite simply incredible. The Canton Tower (formerly the tallest in the world) is staggering. Going up to the top was not for the feint hearted.