| The Travails Of A British Icon...

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25th Jun '09 by Murakami

2 comments 1171 reads

This is a new thread on British Airways given that the other thread is somewhat out of date and combines disparate topics. We are planning to migrate some of the recent posts onto this thread....

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About the Author

Murakami

Premium Member

2 comments

Gradders73

7th Jul '09

Hardly surprising news that the BA unions reject pay proposals. This suggests a few things:

there will be even greater problems if they attempt changes to the pension scheme

strikes may come during peak summer season

more pain for shareholders.

Frankly, the propose starting pay of £11k, which works out at approx £150 a week after tax, for a company which has it's hub in the South East of England, isn't enough to cover living costs.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/06/british-airways-jobs-pay-unions

Fangorn

7th Jul '09

I've never been a fan of the airlines at all, just too many headaches, whether that be airline overcapacity (quite why every nation needs their own flag carrier other than for some prestige reason just amazes me), volatile fuel prices, or ridiculous levels of overmanning.

Whilst I appreciate 11k starting salary is pretty derisory(particularly when compared to the Ceo who seems pretty useless to boot), I don't see how BA is going to survive in its current form unless there's an uptick in premium travel sharpish & it's merger with AA is allowed to go through.

Costs have to be slashed. Current so called "transatlantic" alliances (that all the major players are part of one way or another) need to be followed to their logical conclusion - outright mergers and cost base slashing, trimming of fleets and an end to all the associated tin pot national airlines.

I'd suggest a couple of areas where BA has gone wrong over the years - firstly is in their treatment of previously loyal customers, such as the FCO (which used to send all its overseas employees, and all of their dependents, on BA only flights, I remember those days well. Then for some reason BA decided it didn't want the business anymore and the FCO moved to "more cost competitive" pastures new. Why turn away money in the bag even if it mean't accepting lower margins? It was still profitable)

The other is in the attitude of cabin staff on BA to the general public. Whilst this may have changed I admit, I am only talking from experience. I foung the cabin crew exceptionally aloof, unhelpful, and general of less visually appealing than say Virgin, Cathay Pacific, Emirates or Singapore Airlines) Hence my refusal to fly BA, unless absolutely unavoidable, for the last 15 years. BA's loss has been primarily Virgin' or Cathay's gain throughout my 15 years of travel, and during that time I have flown in all three cabin classes. Added to that, maybe my eyesight is failing me, but the leg room for BA economy would seem ot be alot stingier than Cathay or Singapore.

Airlines a big avoid for me.

And the likely strikes from attempts to radically overhaul their profitability problems is going to put their survival in even more doubt in my view.

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The travails of a British icon...

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Murakami

2 comments

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