British Airways has officially unveiled a long-awaited new safety video which will screen on all long-haul flights from May 1. The safety video is the first created by the airline since 2017 and the first to actually be shown on flights since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 when the old video was pulled from screens.
As we revealed in January, the video features a glut of local celebrities, including US Open champion Emma Raducanu and English chef Tom Kerridge, alongside the BA’s new uniform designer Ozwald Boateng, rapper Little Simz and reporter Robert Peston.
Also featured are Ncuti Gatwa, Kaya Scodelario and Steven Bartlett, as well as several of BA’s own crew members and pilots.
The five minutes video is meant to play on all things synonymous with the United Kingdom, including the British obsession with discussing the weather and the timeless pastime of enjoying fish and chips at the seaside.
“We have all sat through safety demonstrations before, so we knew we needed to create something different that would capture attention and was totally in line with our British Original positioning,” commented BA’s chief customer officer Calum Laming on Monday.
“We wanted this to be a real celebration of originality and for us, it is our people who – together with where we’re from – make us unique. That’s why it was important for us to hero so many of our amazing colleagues doing what they do each and every day for our customers and for each other,” Laming continued.
British Airways has created two versions of the new video – the first version which will screen at the start of May, features crew in the current uniform, while a second version with crew members in the Boatend-designed threads will air once the uniform is rolled out later this year.
British Airways pulled its old safety video at the start of the pandemic when new face mask requirements were introduced. Airlines were concerned that passengers wouldn’t understand that they needed to remove their COVID face mask before putting on an oxygen mask in the case of sudden depressurization.
Crew members will still perform a manual safety demonstration on all short-haul flights because British Airways does not have video screens on its fleet of Airbus A320 series aircraft.
