BAA's PR boss quits in a huff

Duncan Bonfield, the British Airport Authority's (BAA's) head of corporate affairs has resigned along with his right-hand man and head of media relations Mark Mann, following a dispute with the group's majority shareholder, Ferrovial.

The resignations, expose the tensions at the heart of BAA, the owner of Heathrow airport, since its £10.1-billion takeover by a Ferrovial-led consortium last year.

A number of senior executives have left since the acquisition, including Heathrow boss Tony Douglas, who stepped down last month. Bonfield's resignation also leaves BAA without a PR head in the middle of a full-blooded PR battle with the British media and during two critical regulatory inquiries.

The two PR men were apparently exasperated with the heavy-handed controls by BAA's Madrid-based owner. Ferrovial imposed a blanket media ban on the corporate press team in June, amid incessant criticism of overcrowded conditions at Heathrow and BAA's other London airports, Stansted and Gatwick.

The gag order was imposed after the Daily Telegraph reported that BAA chief executive Stephen Nelson had sought "crisis talks" with the then transport secretary Douglas Alexander over immigration queues.

Furious that the news was leaked, Alexander's office bitterly complained to Ferrovial, whose executive chairman Rafael del Pino ordered Bonfield's team not to answer any press questions unless they were requests for facts and statistics.

Since the ban tied his hands while BAA is caught at the centre of a media storm, Bonfield stepped down without a job to go to, and is on "gardening leave". Mann will now be head of communications at steel major Arcelor Mittal. Meanwhile, the airport group continues to face daily negative attacks from the media and politicians.

The Competition Commission is considering whether to break up the group - considered increasingly likely - and the aviation regulator is looking at reducing the return that BAA can make on running the airports. BAA's external PR firm, Maitland, has said that "arrangements are being made" to replace Bonfield and Mann shortly.