TravelMole Comment: Stop hoping for revenge on BA
British Airways has announced that is has reached agreement with the unions over the clocking -in dispute, and the hope of some agents that the issue might prove the airline’s undoing seem to be fading fast.
Many agents had hoped that the crisis would go from bad to worse – leaving BA in a situation where it would need their help – help that wouldn’t be there as payback for the airline’s perceived wrongs. BA would then be usurped as the national flag carrier by Virgin Atlantic and all those agents with grievances against the airline could then live happily ever after.
But BA has lived to fly another day. And even despite recent events the airline seems to be gaining favour in the City. BA announced yesterday that its pre-tax losses for the first quarter were £45 million, substantially less than expected. And the airline said the reason why it had kept losses down was because of the success of its Future Size and Shape programme. Indeed, the airline even managed to cut its sales and distribution costs in the period by £25million more than it had originally targeted. So a change in the way it renumerates agents and a return to commission hardly seems likely.
So where does this leave agents? They seem to have two choices. Number one option is to keep railing against BA, refuse to come to terms with any of the changes the airline has instigated, hope that another similar crisis hits the airline and that this time BA gets its comeuppance.
Or perhaps it’s time to take a more pragmatic approach. To realise that BA is a survivor, that its boss seems to be making the right commercial decisions to keep the airline on track and that maybe, just maybe, they need the airline just as much as the airline needs them.
See this week’s story:
31-Jul-2003BA reports £45million pre-tax loss
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