Hallo Leute,
Das betrifft uns in gewisser Weise alle- die British Airways wollen ab 6. November keine Surfboards mehr transportieren- was Ihr dagegen tun könnt:

BRITISH SURFING ASSOCIATION SETS UP PETITION TO STOP BRITISH AIRWAYS SURFBOARD BAN

www.britsurf.co.uk/ > News Section > Sign Online Petition of Protest

To represent the needs of thousands of surfers who are shocked by the new British Airways (BA) ban on the carriage of surfboards (effective from 6th November), the British Surfing Association (BSA) has set up a petition to lobby the airline to reverse their decision. The organisation is also urging all surfers to utilise a new members group on the social networking site Facebook, complain directly to BA and spread the word amongst other surfers.

The BSA has over 10,000 members across the country and hundreds of them have contacted the organisation over the past few days expressing their disbelief and anger at what they see as a marginalisation of the sport and everyone within the surfing community. Until now, due to BA’s fair baggage policy, the British surfing teams have almost always traveled with BA to their European and international events but if BA insists on continuing with the ban, all surfers will be forced to use other airlines. A large number of the BSA’s members are based on outlying British islands where BA is the only flight carrier and the new ban will mean they will not now be able to fly with their boards.

Karen Walton, National Director, BSA, says, “If everyone who surfs could take five minutes to go online and follow our recommended action steps then we will have a real representation of the swell of support for the reversal of this absurd decision. The Facebook site already has in excess of 1,000 members and lots of our members have been making complaints to BA. The media has been integral to us raising awareness of this issue and we’d like to thank all the journalists and media outlets who have been carrying the story thus far. Our new online petition means that people all over the world can add their support to our campaign and can add their personal comments about the issue. We will then be personally delivering the petition to the management at BA in the near future.”

Surfers are urged to take the following steps to help us lobby British Airways to reverse their decision:

1) Go onto www.britsurf.co.uk and click the ‘SIGN ONLINE PETITION OF PROTEST IN THE NEWS SECTION ON THE HOME PAGE’. Follow the easy steps to sign this online petition and add any comments.

2) If you have a Facebook account, join the Facebook ‘British Airways Surfboard Ban’ group

3) Click this link www.britishairways.com/travel/custrelform/public/en_gb and register a complaint with BA directly

4) Encourage all other surfers to follow these steps

ENDS

Issued on behalf of the British Surfing Association by Excess EneRGy Communications. For interviews and more information please contact Rhona Gardiner on 077410 052 or Rhona@excessenergycomms.com


Notes to editors:
FULL STATEMENT ISSUED 23RD OCTOBER:

BRITISH SURFING ASSOCIATION STATEMENT ON NEW BRITISH AIRWAYS BAGGAGE POLICY

As the governing body for surfing in this country we are extremely shocked to hear about British Airways’ new policy on baggage and their statement that after the 6th November they will no longer carry surfboards at all. In their own words BA is the company that promotes itself as the UK's largest international scheduled airline and ‘takes pride in providing a full service experience.’ Hundreds of airlines across the world manage to carry surfboards every day so why BA suddenly finds itself in a situation where it thinks these boards are too difficult to handle is inexplicable.

At the BSA we have over 10,000 members across the country and hundreds of them have contacted us today about this new decision, expressing their disbelief and anger at what they see as a marginalisation of the sport and everyone within the surfing community.

Surfing is one of the fastest growing mainstream sports in this country with tens of thousands of people taking to the waves for the first time every year, then continuing to develop and hone their skills in a whole range of surf destinations. International surf travel companies are expanding every day as British people look to pursue their new found passion abroad, particularly in the winter months and BA has recently reopened its route from Gatwick to Newquay, no doubt keen to capitalise on the growing number of British people heading for the surf.

As the national governing body, we arrange the international travel for the British Surfing Teams each year and almost without fail we have chosen to fly with BA in the past, mostly as a result of their generally fair baggage policy. We therefore feel completely let down and angered by the news that our national airline is banning surfboards rather than following some other airlines and charging a supplementary fee.

Although every surfboard, piece of sporting equipment and musical instrument is different in shape and size, we’d find it extremely hard to believe that the average short board would be more difficult to handle when compared to a double bass and a full bag of golf clubs. Most people would fit into a double bass case, and a full set of golf clubs would certainly weigh more than your average surfboard which would be around 4kg, so how BA can justify these ridiculous statements is beyond us.

We can only imagine that many more of BA’s frequent flyer executive club members are golfers or musicians than surfers and that the decision to ban surfboards is a commercial one made on this basis. Either way, we find it alarming and would be keen to stress to other airlines that this is a move that is in no way satisfactory.

We’re currently considering the action that we’re going to take but we will be contacting BA directly on behalf of our members and offering those members an opportunity to contribute their thoughts and comments to an uprising debate that is certain to rage.