[Swissdiver]

Excellent article summarising the sad BA’s state…

[capetonianm]

It is an excellent article and highlights so much of what is wrong with BA.

The only point on which I would take exception with the author is referring to Michael O’Leary as a ‘lightweight’. He has shaken up the airline industry, talks more sense than most people in the public eye put together, and runs what might be the world’s most successful and profitable airline.

We may detest Ryanair and its chief, and refuse to travel on it, but to denigrate it when it carries 100 million passengers a year in the way that most of them wish, and choose, to be transported in order to save money, is a simplistic and unfair approach. I admire O’Leary and as long as I never have to travel on his airline, I am happy that it keeps those people off the airlines I want to travel on, and keeps the rest of the industry on its toes.

The mistake BA and some other legacy carriers have made is to try to descend to the Ryanair level, instead of differentiating themselves by offering better services at higher prices.

[canucklad]

Morning capetonianm
And I agree, the article is a must read for those amongst us who belief in that the bottom line can only be achieved by focussing on profit and loss columns filtering in to spreadsheets that measure against glide scope dashboards and other financial KPI’s normally created by people who don’t get out much.
But, I am going to take umbrage at your Ryanscare customer comment. I frequently use them for cheap weekend breaks from EDI. You get what you pay for, and as the article alluded too, the best asset O’Leary has is his staff, particularly cabin crew, who on the whole are consistently friendly and engaging. Now can I sell you a scratch card. ? .

[FDOS_UK]

I switched off when I read ‘Lightweight O’Leary’.

This is patently nonsense, whether you like him or not.

[capetonianm]

Canucklad :

I’ll bite on that. No offence meant, and I have only flown once on FR, about 12 years ago, and based on that experience, have never done so again and hopefully never will.

The check in agent at Stansted was abrupt and surly (not to me, but to a Spanish couple in front of me who only spoke basic English), but her attitude to me after I’d acted as interpreter to solve the problem was not much better. The cabin crew were anything but ‘friendly and engaging’. They looked scruffy, tired, and bored. The announcements were unintelligible. The aircraft seats were so filthy that I sat on my newspaper instead of letting my clothes touch the seats, and the almost constant blaring noise/announcements were a source of irritation.

I paid £8.99 for the flight. It left on time and arrived early. I got what I paid for, a cheap third rate experience. I do understand that they have improved greatly since then, but as I nearly always have an alternative, I am not willing to try them.

That said, as I’ve pointed out, I have huge respect for MoL, I just don’t want to use his airline.

Back to BA, I understand that Cruz wants to have two airlines in one. Huh? Not going to work. They need to identify and stick to their market segment. If I went to a quality steak house, I would not expect to find a MuckDonalds out the back. If I go to a Mercedes dealer, I don’t expect them to be flogging 15 year old Renaults to 18 year olds.

[Tom Otley]

Yes, the two airlines in one seems to come from the Sunday Times piece (you need a sub to read it)

‘Anyone but British Airways’: turbulent times at the nation’s flag carrier
Buffeted by computer meltdowns, strikes and — gasp! — the end of free G&Ts, can “the world’s favourite airline” soar again?

[canucklad]

Absolutely no offence taken capetonianm ,
I’ve also had to endure adults behaving as if they’re on the last bus home after a particularly wet and emotional day out in Edinburgh’s finest establishments.
Fortunately for me, EDI tends to have less of this crowd than either GLA or PIK, and then it tends to be people who couldn’t fly from so said airports.

Back to BA and its schizophrenic vision of the future, aligned with its bipolar management style to both its employees and its passengers. …..

I was taken by the “ Make your customer experience the centre of your differentiated service offering. Don’t copy, differentiate “comment.
IMO, those companies that compete , or try and compete directly with a perceived competitor will eventually find themselves fighting for ever diminishing scraps thrown by an ever increasing disloyal consumer base. Consequently, profit margins are squeezed and squeezed further as the consumer realises the power they have as holders of the wealth……

A metaphor that might fit, …. Us as passengers holding a bag of cold chips at the seaside..
BA, Ryanair , Easyjet and co are the seagulls hovering and swooping whenever they can eye an opportunity. … Ultimately and inevitably, some of the birds are going to go hungry.

And thanks for posting the topic and link, Swissdiver

[Swissdiver]

I share your point of view regarding O’Leary: I hope to never fly on Ryanair, but reckon the great business endeavour. It is similar to me to MS Office: terrible products but great commercial success as they both met the market demand.

But I pretty like the rest of the article.

[Author]

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