In a rather shocking decision, the British Airways has placed a ban on certain items of sporting equipment on all its flights. Equipment like canoes, kayaks, surfboards, javelins, pole vaults, hand gliders and wind surfing boards will not be allowed on the airline from 6th of November and passengers have been advised to engage the services of freight companies for the transportation of these items. One problem that may arise from this arrangement is the planning of surf trips and beach holidays. With the surfer and the surf board traveling on two different carriers, timing the whole thing might become a hassle, many would certainly be happy to do without.
The decision has been made as the airline was facing a serious problem with its baggage backlog, and apparently, these sporting items were discovered to be the root cause of the problem, to the absolute disbelief of many. The reason sited for banning these items is their “large size and handling complexities”, a claim totally refused by the surfing community, in particular. The ban has been criticized even more as the airline has no problems carrying bulky items like bicycles, musical instruments and other sporting equipment for archery, skiing, golf and shooting etc.
The airline will definitely stand to loose some of its frequent flyers, as thousands of people in
One reason for placing the ban could be the susceptibility of these items to breakage, while being handled in the loading docks and in the hold, which is something the avid surfers will definitely not be taking as a genuine excuse. Whether the decision will cost BA a lot in terms of passengers and revenue is yet to be seen, but as far as the surfer community and surfing trip organizers are concerned the last thing they want is for other airlines to follow in the foot steps of British Airways. Read more about this story through Times Online, BA bans surfboards and canoes.
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Thats a real shame. They are going to lose customers because they won’t go the extra mile for surfers. Or rather, they won’t do what other airlines do even. I wonder how much profit they make since they effectively shut us off their customer list by this decision, they were making too much?!