British Airways has reportedly blamed a mix up for a mistake in its new Terminal 5 punctuality campaign, which has led to the ads having to be rewritten. Bartle Bogle Hegarty worked on the campaign for BA.

Published: 13 Aug 2008

British Airways has reportedly blamed a mix up for a mistake in its new Terminal 5 punctuality campaign, which has led to the ads having to be rewritten. Bartle Bogle Hegarty worked on the campaign for BA.

The Sunday Times highlighted the fact that the Civil Aviation Authority measures departure times from when an aircraft leaves the terminal buildings, and not when it takes off. However, the British Airways T5 ad said that 90 percent of flights were "taking off within 15 minutes of the scheduled time", which it had said was an industry standard.

The Sunday Times reported that a source at BA blamed the T5 problem on a "mix up" between Bartle Bogle Hegarty and BA's marketing staff. The source told the newspaper: "We are so annoyed because we knew we had to be spot on with the wording but someone at the agency changed it. We should have picked it up."

A spokeswoman for BA, said: "This was a genuine human error and was an innocent oversight. The headline claim of 90 percent of flights leaving from the terminal on time within the industry standard was correct, however, the use of the phrase "take-off" may have been unintentionally confusing and for that we apologise. All 90 airlines which use Heathrow have to queue for take-off for around 20 to 25 minutes most days. This process is not controlled by the airlines. Overall, we are pleased that Terminal 5 continues to work well and our customers are enjoying the best levels of service at Heathrow for many years."

Earlier this month, the airline had launched a customer experience campaign in support of London Heathrow Terminal 5. The objective of "T5 is Working" campaign is to present an accurate portrayal of how Terminal 5 is performing, demonstrating that it is now working effectively.