British Airways got problems handling crisis situation

Unbelievable but apparently true.






British Airways completely missed the launch of their new Terminal 5.

It was a total disaster for British Airways.

Passengers lost their luggages, several flights were delayed and canceled

BA chaos at Terminal 5

For several hours there was nobody to speak to the press and nobody knew what was going on.

There was nobody to represent BA and nobody to handle the situation within the terminal.

BA and terminal 5 joined the list of top PR blunders

That is quite bad for British Airways' reputation and it could destroy their relationship with their customers in the future...

Tibetans protesting

Tibet is a rich area but Tibetans' human rights have longer been abused.
So now Tibetans want their independance

Buddhist monasteries are among the few institutions in China which have the potential to organise resistance and opposition to the government so China is exercising an real control on Tibet and is regulating closely monasteries.

Tibetans are taking advantage of the Beijing Olympics Games as the world eyes are turn on China, to raise their issue. Recently there were a lot of Tibetans protesting in the streets.

How China respond to Tibetans protestations

Beijing police officer cracked down on the protesters with force, sending in hundreds of troops to regain control of the restive areas.

Hundreds of young Tibetan men have been rounded up and jailed to stop further protests against Chinese rule in the run-up to the Olympic Games, it was claimed yesterday. (Simon Parry, Dailymail)

China is facing a big dilemma

If Tibetans continue their protetations China will have to stop them and apparentely it will be by violence. That horrifying image will not benefit the upcoming Beijing Olympics Games.

Beijing Olympics Games means a lot top China. It will:

. Enhance China image or reputation
. Lot of profit earning (tickets sold, hotels bookings etc...)
. More investors
. More future businesses opportunities
. Enhance tourism

Therefore China is in the urge to find a sound solution for both parts.

Opening of Terminal 5

The Queen officially opened Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 and describe it as "21 century gateway to Britain".

Terminal 5 will begin its operations on 27 March with the opportunity to receive more passengers but no more flights.

Terminal 5 facts and figures

• Cost £4.3bn
  
• Construction started in 2002
  
• 9 million cubic metres of earth moved during construction
  
• 30,000 square metres of glass in walls
  
• Main terminal is 40m high
  
• 60 new aircraft stands, including 14 for the Airbus A380
  
• 13km of tunnels were bored for baggage handling and rail links
  
• Most rainwater falling on it will be recycled
  
• Six new rail platforms, including two for London Underground

Advantages

• Terminal 5 will be able to handle 30million passengers per year,
  
• The terminal's control tower will be the highest in the UK.
  
• Around 18km of conveyor belt will be used to transport luggage around the terminal when it opens.
  
• It is the UK's largest ever single site archaeological project, with over 100 hectares of land requiring investigation.

However, Heathrow's owner, BAA, said it expected the new baggage system at T5 to work "perfectly" but admitted other parts of the facility would suffer glitches. (Dan Milmo & Rebecca Smithers, The guardian 14 March 2008).

So there are some doubts that Terminal 5 may not be ready or at its full capacity during its next opening on 27 march.

If it is not sure that the Terminal 5 could receive so much passengers why rushing then?

Here are some opinions concerning the opening of Terminal 5

The future will tell us if Terminal 5 was ready to operate or not...

Students: let's be more knowledgeable

Are you a student?

Are you interested in beeing aware and receiving update information concerning politics, financial markets and businesses?

What if you can do all that for free?

Here is the solution...





It is now possible for students to register for a free finantial times account via Facebook.

A subscription to FT.com costs £98.99 per year in the UK. FT is offering a free 12 months subscription renewable for up to four years to any college student that add its Facebook application. Once the FT application added on the user's profile, his/her friends can see it and can be invited to register for a free account.

Ien Cheng, publisher and managing editor of FT.com, said: "There is an increasing demand from university and MBA students for access to the FT's quality of insight and reporting and the new Facebook application will enable them to access that premium content for free". This application is part of our ongoing efforts to reach a new generation of readers who we hope will become life long fans of the FT." ( Staff Brand Republic 06-Mar-08)

Finantial Times is originally a British newspaper which is now printed in 24 big cities.

Finantial Times website has 36.6% of its users coming from UK and 37.7% coming from USA. For a British we can say that FT is doing good if not better on the international plan.
Below is a graph from Alexa to draw attention on their website traffic.






















Facebook is the most popular social networking allowing users to share pictures & applioations, to communicate, to find new or old friends, etc...

Facebook website has only 9.4 % users coming from UK compared to 40.9 % users coming from USA.

However overall Facebook has a a lot of traffic on their website (see below).
This new association with FT can be a good opportunity to have more people from UK registering or visiting their website.





















For more information on the free student subscrition offer click here



I have already subscribe for an account. Hope to see you soon.