MARK PILLING LONDON
Results of the "Future Size and Shape" study at British Airways, which is a thorough and radical strategic review of the carrier's direction, should be reaching final conclusions by March.
The project team is made up of five senior managers from across the airline, including representatives from finance, marketing, network planning, economics and an area general manager. They have a brief to "think the unthinkable" and review BA's network and operations will no pre-conditions attached.
These managers are casting their eye across areas like its four-class structure on long-haul routes and crucially on what to do with its persistently loss-making European short-haul network. In this field the BA experts are working on eight models ranging from the most extreme - abandoning short-haul operations altogether or withdrawing from London Gatwick. However, the most drastic options are already understood to have been ruled out
With such extreme options being examined, speculation of more job losses, on top of the 7,200 cut since September, has been rife. BA chief executive officer, Rod Eddington, quashed the talk of job cuts as "completely unfounded estimates".
Measures that BA has already taken in recent months, and ones which could be accelerated, are the cutting of more loss-making long-haul services and the passing on of domestic and European routes to franchise carriers or lower-cost subsidiary CitiExpress.
The latest reduction in its long-haul flying will see it discontinue services to Taipei and Manila on 4 March. BA currently serves Taipei via Hong Kong three times a week with Boeing 747-400s under the British Asia Airways brand, while Manila has four flights weekly. It will continue serving both destinations through its oneworld alliance partner Cathay Pacific Airways.
One piece of good news amid the gloom for BA is the success of Concorde since its return to service on 7 November. Loads on the London Heathrow to New York service have reached 75%, with 65% in the opposite direction. The Barbados service, resumed on 1 December, has fared even better, hitting loads of 85%. Three BA Concordes are now in operation, with the fourth re-entering service in January.
Source: Airline Business
