[Anonymous]

[MarcusUK]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7143822.ece

400,000 lost to other Airlines, £7m a day loss, 69% load factors…
Seems travellers of all cabins realise they have a choice, & when they try, they prefer the other options.

Reliability, good experiences on the ground & in the cabin, & having teams of a Company motivated & content in their work, counts for much. It says much about the state of any Business, any good employer, to see how content staff teams at all levels are.

Here in Australia, major travel agents such as Flight Centre reported they are having few bookings for BA, with their reputation scuppered. Qantas appears to be level on the Kangaroo route (See BA demise in May BT article), Daily A380’s coming to SYD & MEL – LHR. BA are finding great difficulty even with their reduced smaller aircraft, & at times a once daily service reduction.
Virgin Atlantic LHR-HKG-SYD remains in great demand.
Emirates & Etihad are taking much traffic 96% LF’s Middle East – Australasia.
(ABC’ Lateline Business’ analysis).

In the current economic climate, set to worsen with cuts in the UK with the new Government set to get very tough, jobs will go & cuts to travel are being & will be made further. This will be felt within many companies in the UK, especially those linked to providing services to Government departments & its suppliers.

It seems like a no reversal loss to BA , a gain by other carriers, High competition, in a world has too many Airlines, chasing too few Customers. Seems BA has had its day, no other World Airline is in such a state.

[BABenji]

“no other world airline is in such a state?”

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-04/lufthansa-loss-widens-on-integration-costs-strike-update2-.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10128296.stm

http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/qantas-profit-plunges/story-e6freqmx-1225831939446

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8059065.stm

http://www.arabianmoney.net/business-travel/2010/04/19/10m-a-day-emirates-loss-latest-blow-to-dubai-recovery/

[VintageKrug]

Quite right BABenji.

More twaddle from MarkRoberts9.

You yourself have stated that you haven’t flown BA in years.

You seem to have some sort of hatred for British Airways – all based on a “friend” of yours being made redundant by the company what must be over a year ago.

While BA is going through a tough patch right now, and is affected more than most by competition from low cost carriers on shorthaul and newer airlines on longhaul, BA is not alone in this as BABenji pointed out.

But as you seem to enjoy kicking an organisation when it’s down, please don’t hold back….

I would also highlight some notable successes in the past year against this backdrop:

– agreement reached with Unions on repayment of Pension Deficit

– new London City-New York service launched

– new routes to Las Vegas, Maldives, Punta Cana

– Open Skies starting service to Washington DC

– new fleet deliveries still coming in, with the latest 777ERs on their way

– new First being rolled out fleet-wide

– new innovations in the offing for the 777ER World Traveller and World Traveller Plus cabin

– imminent merger with Iberia and future merger with AA will build scale

– one of the most impressive strike-busting projects in modern times, led by BA staff themselves, meaning just 25% of longhaul flights and 35% of shorthaul are disrupted, with every destination being served at least once per day.

– A380s on their way in 2013, 787s also purchased

You stated:

“Here in Australia, major travel agents such as Flight Centre reported they are having few bookings for BA, with their reputation scuppered.”

I mean really, did you pop round to your local Flight Centre and ask the fragrant Sally on the desk if she had booked anyone to London on BA recently?

You also display you lack of awareness of the Joint Services Agreement between BA and Qantas – BA has reduced its capacity on the Sydney route exactly because Qantas has increased its capacity with the early order for the A380s – BA gets a proportion of all the revenue from these services whether it is operating them with its own aircraft or not.

As with so many of your rants against BA, the information is riddled with supposition, hearsay and often misleading information presented as fact.

[JonathanCohen09]

MarcusUK,

what a very dissappointing post that has easily been shot to pieces by both BABenji with very few words and VK with lots of words but unimpeachable in terms of factual information.

the whole forum is aware that I am no huge fan of BA, although i will be trying them to TLV next week, but I do not slag them off or want them to go under as you seem to.

Please try to be less emotional and more factual in future as it is hard to have respect for, or take a poster seriously who seems to have a totally negative bias towards BA, irrespective of any facts that are posted which are contrary to your own views.

There was another poster whose anti BA posts became so totally unbelievable that we just ignored him. Perhaps the time has come to do the same with you.

Safe travels everyone,

Jonathan

PS have you seen the state of BMI, JAL or AF/KLM to name but a few carriers who are also not doing so well without even starting to talk about the stae of many US carriers!

[MarcusUK]

– No articles list any details of the walk out of its employees with regular strikes, damaging PR, lost business, due to internal conflicts?

– No Airline is cancelling services, or has pending strikes every week ahead?

– Qantas’s Jetstar, have just signed an interline agreement with AF/KLM, diiverting business away from BA.

– AF/KLM have been linking onto Qantas flights for the last month for fares EU to Australia, Not part of the revenue for BA or part of the JSA

Clearly you know nothing from Australasia…ABC’s Lateline program holds analysis every eve. They interview only CEO’s or Chairman of Companies, they get the facts, directly. They have leaders of the main financial Companies from the stock exchange, each eve to reflect on the day’s market moves & trends. June is the end of the financial year here. Companies are indicating their results for the end of year results.

The CEO of Flight Centre Australia was stating discussing turnover, facts & figures, & trends they had observed.
“customers no longer want to travel on British Airways, & turn down when we offer, their services it appears”.

£119M lost to the strikes so far. £7M a day.
BA Load factors -69%
Virgin 92% (up 14%).
£3.4Bn liabilities with a reachable £1.7Bn of cash & loans available.

Australasia –
A very accurate non biased assessment in May’s BT magazine of the Kangaroo route & BA’s loss. The JSA, whilst renewed see’s Qantas providing most of the services with BA cutting back. 2 daily A380’s will ply Australia to LHR with Qantas. The current Chairman stated they” were Re-looking at our relationship with BA, not excluding other carriers or groups” on Lateline in May 2010…then this was being negotiated.

And yet, Qantas’s Jetstar, have just signed an interline agreement with AF/KLM?!

Domestic through ticketing in both the EU, as well as Australia…not very supportive of BA? If business was solid between Qantas & BA they would have put Jetstar on the agreement with BA. They did not.
It will greatly assist Qantas remaining at T4 with Skyteam ( no strategy to include them in T5), to pursue their other strategies.

Already bookings with AF from EU to Australia, feature Qantas on the final leg…not part of the JSA income for both to share it seems?

Nice to see BA taking on tourist routes like Las Vegas..they are Semi low cost now, with all their desperate charges, so it suits their services & image now.

I am sure the merger with Iberia again will suit BA, subject to the liabilities it needs to discharge first.. I am sure many will look forwards to transiting via Madrid for their Long hauls flights.

And as for the “fleet roll out”, 5 years behind all other major leading carriers!
Many see clearly the image, reputation,& overall decline of BA, hence they choose other carriers. They have had new fleets of Aircraft (A345/6, A380’s, 772/300-ER’s for 5 years.

Every Airline is in the same climate. No other Airline has its employees walk out & have such an irretrievable, terminal breakdown of communications within their own company, made public, progressively damaging all. For any Company this would be a disaster, a fatal blow, & a PR devastation. Exactly that has happened.

My friend who is now very happy & successful as a Director of a major financial city firm, was pleased he decided to leave BA. As he stated at the time, the Senior Management were “starting to destroy all the standards his teams created over many years…including him & his colleague who first floated the LCY JFK route! He forecast right the grown conflicts we see today, 3 yrs ago. He walked away of his own free will, with an excellent package & life long travel benefits.
He is very in touch with x colleagues, better than any perspective held on this forum.

Blinkered & tunnel vision views of BA, but many who think more of their share decline & try to talk them up,rarely see or travel other Airlines. Out of touch with any form of objective global view, & VK an obvious mouthpiece as many have clearly pointed out on BT, for BA, scraping the barrel for positive comments. Sure we cant wait for the next update on the LCY – JFK route minute by minute…
A view better held for someone who truly believes in the British Empire era! Certainly not a rational, realistic one, or in touch with the main stream of the UK, or the World trends in the Airline Industry.

I choose not to fly BA as their services, PR, reliability, fleet & staff, do not meet the standards of other Airlines, that far outweigh them in Every aspect of travel! (SQ, EY, EK, KLM, VS…)
Colleagues, friends, many Customers who did fly BA, no longer do. My view & perspective is made up from many independent experiences, not of one.

[NTarrant]

Frankly Mark I am at a bit of a loss to know why you keep posting stuch diatribe about BA, I mean you don’t use the airline. You base your rants on your friend who left in suspisous circumstances and some Australian journalism.

Really the person who is out of touch is you Mark. Your posts are not logical. As I say if you used the airline then maybe your post would have credability. But as VK keeps finding many holes in your flakey arguments, why keep posting such tosh.

[LynDubai]

BA do not seem to value our custom any more. Apart from some rather tired interiors, I have no gripe about BA service and routes. (Could be cheaper in some cases though!)
However..I have been a Gold card holder for 10 years and this year I ifnd all my travel will be for a short period in Middle East. Next year I will revert to long haul again. I asked BA nicely about the possibility of extending my Gold Card to cover next year as I will not earn an extension this year as BA do not fly my required routes. My alternative is to earn Gold with Emirates this year and contine with them long haul next year.

BA were not in the least interested… another frequent flyer Gold memeber lost with the appropriate revenue loss. Are they bent on destruction!!

[Potakas]

I couldn’t agree more with BAbenji and VK, all the airlines have serious economical issues and i just believe that BA is the first airline that want to do something in order to resolve it.

If AF/KLM want to cut 3000 jobs i am sure they are going to have strikes.

BAbenji’s links proves that WW and BA want to keep the BA flying and are not crazy.

In the near future we all are going to be able to get our answers but now they only think that we can do is to fly with the way we enjoy it.

Safe travels,

Potakas

[binabdulaziz]

BA had not best reputation in KSA, as pulled off our routes at very short notice.

Many say only fly Saudi or bmi.

Me, I think BA is good airline, but London not good airport for user, too many buses, security not efficient, sometimes boarding priority lost.

But lounges very good.

[NTarrant]

Sorry LynDubai but I think you are being a bit unfair to expect BA to extend your Gold card just because you are not going to use BA for a period due to your circumstances. How do they know that what you say about re-starting long haul with them next year will materialise.

You will drop down to Silver but then back to Gold if you do the flights you say.

The reason BA pulled out of KSA Mr Binabdulaziz was due to terrorist threats at the time.

[MartynSinclair]

Lynn

“as BA do not fly my required routes” – so change to another airline and gain their gold card……………………dohhhhhhhh!!

Its dog eat dog in the airline world at the moment.

[JohnPhelanAustralia]

Just to correct a couple of Mark’s comments re the position in Australia:
1. Because of the JSA with Qantas, BA has been reducing its own services for years
2. QF has long had interline agreements with AF and KLM; all the new agreement does is extend that to include Jetstar flights as well (until now, Jetstar has had NO interline agreements with any airline except QF)
3. There has been VERY little media comment in Australia about BA’s financial situation or the strike
4. Neither the Chairman or CEO of QF have made any comments suggesting the JSA will end any time soon.

[LynDubai]

I have changed to another airline as I said! BA loses many international flights next year…their loss. Business they could have kept if they wanted.

[binabdulaziz]

“The reason BA pulled out of KSA Mr Binabdulaziz was due to terrorist threats at the time.”

Reason changes nothing – BA not liked by many in KSA, including many British expatriate who say they were unhappy – e.g. BAE people.

Many expatriates prefer fly bmi because BA pulled out – this fact.

Me, I already say I like BA.

Anyway, better you do not talk of ‘terrorism’, for reason for this threats was slaying of many in Iraq in war that many question was lawful. Anyway KSA security forces deal with problem and now BA fly here again.

Violence very bad thing – violence creates violence, story never ends, very bad.

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