In a bizarre move, British Airways abruptly ended their partnership with the Financial Times and will no longer offer the daily newspaper to their customers. At the same time, Virgin Atlantic reacted promptly on Twitter.
At the same time the FT advertised on a half page that British Airways will no longer offer the newspaper and put the blame on BA, even going so far as saying that other leading airlines still offer it.
This strikes me as a really strange move by British Airways, an airline that is based in London which is still the worlds No 2 Financial Hub, where the FT is very popular. Many passengers (not only those of BA) still enjoy reading physical newspapers both during the flight and before at the lounge/gate.
There is no doubt that customers won’t be happy about this new development, and in a typical move Virgin Atlantic trolled BA in a Twitter post:
Was it another nickel and diming action by Alex Cruz? A few cents here and there that he doesn’t want to spend anymore, or maybe the newspaper raised the prices for the airline.
British Airways isn’t alone here. Two years ago already, Lufthansa stopped the distribution of magazines and newspapers on domestic and continental European flights. Instead, they made a library of different magazines and daily newspapers available as eJournals.
Conclusion
Maybe at some point there will be details available as to why BA ceased the partnership with the FT. It’s very possible that this is just the beginning of a wider plan in Alex Cruz’ drawer to also chop newspapers and magazines from British Airways flights and lounges entirely. I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
