Iain Burns
Iain Burns is the head of Corporate Communications at Etihad Airways (EA), which is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.
Prior to joining EA in January 2007, Burns had worked as the head of communications for British Airways from September 2001 until October 2006. Burns had been suspended, and later resigned from BA, after an investigation was launched by the U.K. government's Office and Fair Trading and the U.S. Department of Justice into allegations of price-fixing in the airline industry. [1] Burns later resigned. [2] The government agencies were alerted by Virgin Atlantic of approaches to agree on fuel surcharges with other trans-Atlantic airlines. In June 2006 The Independent reported that BA is "seeking to distance its top management from the price-fixing investigation the airline is facing by pinning the blame on the unauthorised actions of individual executives." [3]
Burns started out at in the PR industry with British Nuclear Fuels Limited and subsequently moved into airline PR working as the UK PR Manager for American Airlines and similar positions at both BM Heathrow and Manchester Airport. He then worked for British Airways, running its media office in the late 1990's before joining the PR consultancy Bell Pottinger "where he handled European and North American PR programmes for Dubai-based Emirates." [4]
Other SourceWatch resources
External links
- Mary Cowlett, "Prepared for anything? Crisis training is meant to prepare PROs for any situation. But how does it measure up in a real crisis?", PR Week, May 6 2005. (Sub req'd).
- Michael Harrison, "BA seeks to shift focus of price-fixing inquiry away from Walsh", The Independent, June 28, 2006.
- Hannah Marriott, "BA in limbo as allegations bite", PR Week, June 29, 2006. (Sub req'd).
- Hannah Marriott, "Media Analysis: Can BA save its reputation?", PR Week"", July 6, 2006.
- "Etihad Airways appoints new Head of Corporate Communications", Media Release, December 18, 2006.
