Angella Johnson
BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) took what it described as a major step in consolidating its position as a “global airline” when it became the first national carrier to dump its country’s flag from the corporate logo to broaden the company’s appeal.
Instead of a single identity, BA’s planes will sport 50 different images created by artists from around the world. Only one of the six unveiled this week bears even a remote resemblance to the Union Jack – an abstract squiggly affair painted on the tailfin of a plane parked at Heathrow airport.
The airline is spending 6-billion in a three-year programme of investing in new services, products, aircraft, facilities and training, to reposition itself as the world’s number one carrier.
On the stroke of 2pm GMT on Tuesday, television screens using 13 satellites sprang simultaneously into action in 63 countries and 126 destinations. The Southern African launch was held at picturesque Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, where about 400 guests had been flown in to celebrate this event. It had been billed as “the world’s biggest broadcast” but many guests suggested it was more hype than substance.
“If it ain’t broke why fix it?” asked one Johannesburg travel agent sipping Pimms on the lawn of the Victoria Falls hotel as a plane bearing a Japanese-style design of waves and cranes swooped down the gorge separating Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Sir Robin Renwick, former British ambassador to South Africa and a BA director, said the move reflected that this was a truly global business. “We are trying to recreate the magic and excitement of air travel,” said Renwick, “by reflecting the different cultures of our international customers.”
An estimated 60% of BA’s 38-million customers each year are non-British.
Will Whitehorn, a representative for Virgin Atlantic, was quoted in a British newspaper as saying: “BA is trying to be all things to all people with this wide range of designs.
“You cannot do that. An airline, or any other product or service, needs brand awareness among its customers. There has to be a single striking image to keep it in people’s minds.”