After Virgin Atlantic, BA Staff Now Embroiled Into Facebook Scandal

Facebook is at the centre of another Company bashing after British Airways reportedly left not-so nice messages about the company and customers who fly with the company.

As the Dailymail reported this morning, British Airways Check-in staff at Gatwick airport have been saying that travellers were smelly and that Heathrow's Terminal 5 is currently operating in a "Shambolic" manner.

A discussion board created by a BA staff listed 13 complaints from his/her peers although a spokesperson for the company said that staff should have used internal (and more traditional) communication routes rather than the likes of Facebook and added that "We will be talking to the individuals concerned about their disappointing and unwise comments, which are totally unrepresentative of the vast number of hard working ground staff we employ at Gatwick."

This latest incident highlights the uncomfortable relationship that public relations practitioners have with new outlets like Facebook which are making their job a more difficult.

Most companies now have a related group on Facebook, either created by their own staff members or by their own customers. For example, Ryanair has a "RyanAir: A Love/Hate Relationship" which counts nearly 2700 members while there are 54 Ryanair crew groups which count more than 5,000 staff.

The news come a few days after Virgin Atlantic sacked 13 cabin crew over Facebook remarks which, while derogatory to the Branson-owned company, might not have been completely untrue.