Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON
British Airways is studying a move which could see it proceed in the low-fare market against new "no-frills" rivals such as easyJet and Debonair.
The airline, which is already seeking to cut costs by £1 billion ($1.7 billion) over the next three years, has commissioned the UK-based consultancy Howell Henry Caldecott and Lewry (HHCL) to undertake a study into the European leisure-air-travel market, and the recent emergence of low-cost airlines. BA emphasises that the study "-has only just started", and that no decision will be taken on the market until HHCL reports back.
US carrier Southwest Airlines is the largest and most successful of the "no-frills" airlines, and its strategy has been copied in recent years by some new US and European carriers. The success of the low-cost US start-ups has already elicited a response from US majors, with some creating low-fare divisions, such as Shuttle by United and Delta Express.
easyJet, which started operations from Luton in 1995, appears to have pioneered successfully the low-fare market in the UK, which will certainly not have gone unnoticed by British Airways.
Meanwhile, industry rumours that BA is looking to spin off more Caribbean leisure routes to Airline Management (AML), its partner on the routes from London to Tampa, San Juan ,Grand Cayman and Nassau , have intensified following a comment in an in-house newsletter for the airline's Gatwick-based flightcrew.
AML, which is associated with the new UK charter airline Flying Colours - Errol Cossey, the airline's chairman, is a director of AML - replaced Caledonian Airways on the routes earlier this year. AML is initially leasing a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 from BA, which is crewed by BA pilots employed through a "separate contract". The aircraft is then wet-leased back to BA, with cabin crews provided by Flying Colours.
While all BA's 777s are now based at London Heathrow, the airline says that "most" of its recent order for five additional aircraft will be based at Gatwick. A report in London newspaper The Times quotes Terry Buckland, a flight training manager on BA's DC-10 fleet, as writing in the newsletter: "Can we crew these aircraft [777s] from within the BA pilot force at rates acceptable to AML? If this work goes outside the BA pilot community it is hard to see how it will ever come back."
While it declines to comment on the rumours, BA confirms that it is "-always looking at opportunities in the leisure market".
Source: Flight International
