Back in the 1990s, British Airways, the nation’s flag-carrier, proclaimed itself to be “the world’s favourite airline” in a long-running and hugely successful advertising campaign. Watching its iconic TV commercials from sofas across the country, many Brits-a pint-sized, starry-eyed Gulliver among them-swelled with pride at what was, at the time, a genuinely treasured national asset. Economist.com: “BA should be careful; reputations are more difficult to win back than to lose”.
“Were British Airways to run the same campaign today, it would probably stir a mixture of derision abroad and embarrassment at home”. (Economist.com: Little by little, British Airways is chipping away at its good name /19.08.2016).
In recent decades the Persian Gulf carriers have dethroned BA as the standard-bearers for long-haul service, while a new breed of low-cost carriers has attacked its short-haul dominance.
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