07 January 2009

'Far-reaching' shake-up for BA

British Airways staff have been told the airline will be undertaking a restructure that will be ââ¬Åâœfar- reaching, reshaping our company from top to bottomââ¬~.

The airlineââ¬â¢s chief financial officer Keith Williams made the announcement in the latest issue of the airline's staff newspaper.

"Only through delivering fundamental change can we achieve the small profit we are targeting this year and emerge from the crisis as a strong global player," he said.

BA has already lost 480 managers after offering voluntary redundancies to 1,400 people.

The majority of these left at the end of December.

A BA spokesman said the airline was looking at further ways to reduce costs and duplication in order to increase efficiency and meet the economic challenges that will no doubt continue in 2009.

"The previous year has been tough and the year ahead could be even tougher," he said.

Meanwhile, at a briefing for Londonââ¬â¢s financial press yesterday, BA chief executive officer Willie Walsh said he was confident the proposed alliance with American Airlines will be approved.

He said the tie-up might even come in time for the next winter timetable.

ââ¬ÅâœThe environment is very different today to last time and there has been no great opposition from the industry in the US,ââ¬~ he told Bloomberg reporters.

Walsh said he was also confident about completing the planned merger with Iberia, with the Spanish airline now having a better understanding of BAââ¬â¢s pension deficit.

But even if both tie-ups fail, Walsh said this wasnââ¬â¢t a ââ¬Åâœbig problemââ¬~, because in the current economic climate there were plenty of airlines for acquisition.

ââ¬ÅâœI get phone calls from CEOs all the time saying, ââ¬ËœPlease buy us.ââ¬â¢ We have to be picky,ââ¬~ he told Bloomberg.

Yesterday, BAââ¬â¢s share price rose 1.8 pence, or 1%, to 184.1 pence in London. Iberiaââ¬â¢s advanced 4 cents, or 2%, to 2.05 euros in Madrid.

The rise in BAââ¬â¢s share price was despite its passenger traffic falling 3.4% in December 2008 compared to December 2007, the 10th consecutive fall.

Load factors in December fell 0.2 points to 76.7%, due to a 12.1 fall in premium traffic and a 1.7% fall in non-premium traffic.

The airline said trading conditions remain broadly unchanged ââ¬Åâœwith long-haul premium traffic continuing the trend of recent months and non-premium traffic showing some resilience, helped by travel over the Christmas periodââ¬~.

Despite the fall in premium traffic, BA is going ahead with the introduction of business-class only flights from London City airport to the US at the end of the summer.




By Bev Fearis

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• Jobs going/gone
  
  

  Whenever trading gets tough, we always hear of managers and management tiers vanishing 'to cut costs' and over the years when there's been trouble at BA, jobs (usually in there hundreds) disappear. Is it just me or could this mean that there were hundreds of people in non-jobs in the first place?? Surely if BA can manage so well without all these people and structures, why did they exist in the first place. If BA had always been lean and trim, even in the good times, then may be we could all have enjoyed lower fares for ever and BA would not have lost out so much to the leaner budgets. To be fair to BA, the same issues seem to cut across most industries. One final thought, from memory, BA only ever seem to cut jobs, if true, eventually there might only be old Willie left!!

  By Keith Standen, Monday, January 12, 2009
• Not again...
  
  

  BA never seem to have it easy. There's always something to unsettle their staff... that said my experience of BA has always been good.

  By W Shearer, Thursday, January 8, 2009
• Not the worlds favourite airline
  
  

  Old Planes, Old tired service and Minimal food. And the seats are worn out with little ot no padding BA the airline of last choice.

  By Paul Neaves, Wednesday, January 7, 2009
• BA Track record..
  
  

  Our Wullie is not doing that well at all. Track Record: AA Merger, ongoing (yawn) IB merger, ongoing (yawn) QF merger, failed. Lufthansa, meanwhile, are gobbling up airlines, without hitch, it seems, faster than you can say "... the plane now boarding". It's all very well saying there are plenty of airlines around, but the ones that are worth having have been or will be gobbled up by LH or AF/KL and what is left will either a) not be worth having or b) find that Mr. O'Leary has already got in there.... Get your finger out, Our Wullie!

  By Murray Harrold, Wednesday, January 7, 2009