BAA -- ¿Como se Dice 'Meltdown'?

The story for BAA, the owner of GB's seven largest airports, has been bad. But Jack predicts it's going to get worse.

That's because BAA's top two flacks just quit. Duncan Bonfield and Mark Mann have suddenly bolted, apparently because BAA's new Spanish-owned parent company, Ferrovial, has shut down any meaningful contact with the news media. Their exits follow the departure of seven BAA senior executives since Ferrovial acquired the company last year.

The flack exodus has two "last-straw" plot points.

Last Straw #1 -- While BAA has been ravaged with bad press for some time about overcrowded airport conditions, Guardian's Dan Milmo says the media lock-down was personally ordered by Ferrovial executive chairman Rafael del Pino because of a leak.

"The embargo was imposed after the Daily Telegraph reported that BAA's chief executive, Stephen Nelson, was seeking "crisis talks" with the then transport secretary Douglas Alexander over immigration queues. Incandescent that details of the meeting were leaked, Mr Alexander's office phoned Ferrovial to complain, resulting in the media ban."

Last Straw #2 -- An un-bylined Daily Mail story tells us the two flacks had enough when they were embarrassed by a sudden plug-pull of scheduled interview.

"The last straw came six weeks ago when Mr. del Pino stopped an interview between BAA chief excutive Stephen Nelson and the Mail's sister paper, the Evening Standard, at the last minute.

He then imposed a media lockdown, banning the two senior media managers from speaking to the press except to answer routine questions.

Journalists have also been banned from entering the airport to ask passengers about their experience."

Jack's observations:

1. The Spaniards do not understand what they have gotten themselves into. "Going dark" would be dangerous enough in Spain's relatively tame media environment, but it's downright suicidal in the UK's media hothouse. Sr. del Pino is about to get a serious "ink-by-the-barrel" lesson.

2. The lock-down is only going to inspire the British media into more aggressive coverage. The story already has a "foreigners-are-screwing-up-one-of-our-companies" angle, and forbidding local management to defend themselves will only exacerbate the aggression.

3. The departure of Bonfield and Mann represents a huge, negative swing in BAA's ability manage their story, as the company's leading defenders are now clearly spinning against it. Jack assumes they are loaded with plenty of unflattering ammo.

4. Doing their best to defend the flag, BAA's external PR firm, Maitland, says that a new head of press relations will be hired shortly. Jack assumes that the queue of candidates for the job will be slightly shorter than the ones at Heathrow, and thus you'll see a Maitland exec take the roll on an interim basis.