It's Terminal (5)


TheLondonPaper has a sponsored page for BA’s Heathrow Terminal 5 in it today. It’s rather amusing the facts they print. 
i) On Monday 89% of all arrivals were on time. 
ii) On Tuesday at T5, the average time through check-in was 8.5 minutes.
iii) On Wednesday at T5, 90% of flights left on time.
iv) On Thursday at T5, the average time through check-in was 9 minutes.

This looks on paper not bad for a terminal trying to rebuild its reputation after a disastrous first few weeks. However the small print is brilliant. 

real i) 89% refers to the number of flights arriving between 6am and 2pm within 15minutes of their scheduled time.
- 15 minutes late you mean? and why up until 2pm, did it suddenly go horribly wrong?

real ii) 8.5 minutes was the average time the 854 customers we asked told us it took them to pass through check-in yesterday between 6am and 2pm
erm this paper was published on friday, yesterday was thursday and it is under Tuesday’s facts? Why?

real iii) 90% refers to he flights departing between 6am and 2pm in the airline industry, ‘on time’ means departing within 15 minutes of the scheduled time

real iv) 9 minutes was the average time the 780 customers we asked told us it took them to pass through check-inyesterday between 6am and 2pm
another erm, so they asked 74 less people and the average time went up! And to point out yesterday was mentioned again...thats odd, same day 2 different numbers.

BA paid for a full page ad to contradict themselves fairly often, and the rest is rather amusing, 6 accounts of how they have found T5. Surprisingly, no one had a bad word to say about the terminal, well I couldn’t honestly see them paying for an ad that did would you?

The advertorial feature signs off with a class line. Terminal 5 is working. Try it for yourself...  erm I’ll pass.