British Airways PLC

views updated Jun 27 2018

British Airways PLC

Waterside, PO Box 365
Harmondsworth
Middlesex UB7 0GB
England
Telephone: (44) 20 8562 4444
Toll Free: (800) 247-9297 (U.S. only)
Fax: (44) 20 8759 4314
Web site:http://www.britishairways.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1924 as Imperial Air Transportation, Ltd.
Employees: 65,157
Sales: £9.278 billion (US $13.151 billion) (2001)
Stock Exchanges: London New York Frankfurt Munich
Ticker Symbol: BAY (London); BAB (New York)
NAIC: 481111 Scheduled Passenger Air Transportation; 481112 Scheduled Freight Air Transportation; 56152 Tour Operators

British Airways PLC is the largest international airline in the world. It is based at Heathrow Airport in London, the busiest international airport in the world, and has a global flight network through partners such as American Airlines in the United States and Qantas in Australia. As the United Kingdom’s sole global network carrier, it transports 36 million passengers a year to approximately 268 destinations and 97 countries.

Early History: Linking the British Empire

British Airways’ earliest predecessor was Aircraft Transport & Travel, Ltd., founded in 1916. On August 25, 1919 this company inaugurated the world’s first scheduled international air service with a converted de Havilland 4A day bomber leaving Hounslow (later Heathrow) Airport for London and also Le Bourget in Paris. Eight days later another company, Handley Page Transport, Ltd., started a cross-channel service between London’s Cricklewood Field and both Paris and Brussels.

That same year Britain’s advisory committee for civil aviation proposed plans for establishing a world airline network linking Britain with Canada, India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Because airplanes capable of crossing wide stretches of water were not yet available, the committee recommended that first priority be given to a route to India and be operated by a state-assisted private enterprise.

Progress was made quickly. Before the end of the year the British government was operating a service to Karachi and had established a network of 43 Royal Air Force (RAF) landing strips throughout Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. Meanwhile, strong competition from subsidized foreign airline companies had forced many of the private British air carriers out of business. By March 1921 all British airline companies had suspended their operations. The government intervened with a pledge to keep the British companies flying, using its own form of subsidization.

In January 1923 Parliament appointed the Civil Air Transport Subsidies Committee to form a single British international air carrier from existing companies. On March 31, 1924 Daimler Airway, British Marine Air Navigation, Instone Air Line, and Handley Page merged to become Imperial Air Transport.

In 1925 Imperial Airways operated a number of European routes while it surveyed a route across the Arabian desert from Cairo to Basra in present-day Iraq. The airline was faced with a number of problems on this route. The desert was featureless, making it easy to get lost. Water stops and meteorological and radio stations were difficult to maintain. Basra was a major terminal on the route to India. However, on January 7, 1927 the Persian government forbade Britain the use of its airspace, blocking all flights to India. Negotiations reopened this airspace two years later, but not before generating a demand for longer range aircraft.

Passengers flying to India flew from London via Paris to Basel, where they boarded a train for Genoa. Next, a flying boat took them on to Alexandria, where they flew in stages to Karachi. The passage to India, previously three weeks by sea, had been reduced to one week by air.

Imperial Airways’ service to Calcutta was established in July 1933, to Rangoon in September, and to Singapore in December. In January of the following year, Australia’s Queensland and Northern Territories Air Service (Qantas) inaugurated a route linking Singapore with Brisbane. The passage to Australia could be completed in 12½ days.

A commercial service through Africa was opened in 1931 with flying boats linking Cairo with Mwanza on Lake Victoria. In April 1933 the route was extended to Cape Town, the trip from London taking 10½ days. An east-west trans-African route from Khartoum in the Sudan to Kano in northern Nigeria was established in February 1936. This route completed a world network that linked nearly all the countries of the British Empire.

The primary source of revenue on the network was not from transporting passengers but mail. Nevertheless, an increase in demand for more passenger seating and cargo space generated a need for larger airplanes. Britain’s primary supplier of flying boats, the Short Company, developed a new model designated the C-class, with 24 seats and weighing 18 tons. Since it had an increased range and flew 145 miles per hour, it was able to simply bypass “politically difficult areas.” The Short C-class went into service in October 1936. A year later Imperial Airways made its first trans-Atlantic crossing with a flying boat equipped with extra fuel tanks. It was Pan Am, however, that first scheduled a regular trans-Atlantic service, employing more sophisticated and updated Boeing airplanes.

World War II and Nationalization

Imperial Airways was formed with the intention of being Britain’s “chosen instrument” for overseas air service. On its European services, however, Imperial was competing with the British Continental airline and an aggressive newcomer called British Airways, which had been created in October 1935 by the merger of three smaller airline companies. Three months later the company acquired a fleet of Lockheed 10 Electras, which were the fastest airplanes available. The competition from British Airways threatened the “chosen instrument” so much that in November 1937 a Parliamentary committee proposed the nationalization and merger of Imperial and British Airways. When the reorganization was completed on November 24,1939, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was formed.

The creation of BOAC was overshadowed by the declaration of war on Germany the previous September. The Secretary of State for Air assumed control of all British air services, including BOAC. Within a year Italy had entered the war and France had fallen. Britain’s air routes through Europe had been eliminated. British flying boats, however, continued to ferry personnel and war cargo between London and West Africa with an intermediate stop at Lisbon in neutral Portugal. The air link to Khartoum maintained Britain’s connection to the “Horseshoe Route,” from Cape Town through East Africa, Arabia, India, and Singapore to Australia. When Malaysia and Singapore were invaded by the Japanese, BOAC and Qantas opened a nonstop service between Ceylon and Perth in western Australia. BOAC transported ball bearings from neutral Sweden using a route that was dangerously exposed to the German Luftwaffe. BOAC also operated a service for returning flight crews to North America after they delivered American- and Canadian-built aircraft to the Royal Air Force.

When the war ended, BOAC had a fleet of 160 aircraft and an aerial network that covered 54,000 miles. The South American destinations of BOAC were assigned to a new state-owned airline, British South American Airways (BSAA), in March 1946. Similarly, the European services were turned over to British European Airways (BEA) in August 1946. After the war, Britain reestablished its overseas services to the nations of its empire. Some of the nations that had recently gained their independence from Britain received advice (and often finance) from BOAC.

In order to remain competitive with the American airline companies, BOAC purchased Lockheed Constellations, the most advanced commercial aircraft of the day. They later added Boeing 377 Stratocruisers and Canadair Argonauts (modified DC-4s). BEA operated generally smaller airplanes and more frequent flights between the British Isles and Continental Europe. In 1948 it joined other Allied airline companies in the airlift to Berlin during the Soviet blockade.

Fleet Strategies: From the Comet to the Concorde

Following a series of equipment failures at BSAA, the Civil Aviation ministry declared that the company should reemerge with BOAC. On July 30, 1949, BSAA was absorbed by BOAC. Even though its passenger load had steadily increased, BOAC accumulated a debt of £32 million in the five years from 1946 to 1951. Much of this was due to “recapitalization,” or purchasing new equipment, including the British-built Handley Page Hermes and de Havilland’s DH Comet 1, the world’s first jetliners.

In January 1954 one of BOAC’s Comets exploded near Elba in the Mediterranean. Another Comet crashed near Naples only 16 days after an investigation of the first crash was concluded. As a result, the Comet’s certificate of airworthiness was withdrawn. An investigation determined that the Comet’s pressurized cabin was inadequately designed to withstand low-air pressures at altitudes over 25,000 feet. When the airplane reached that altitude it simply exploded. The cabin was strengthened and the jet reintroduced in 1958 as the DH Comet 4.

The company was forced to purchase propeller-driven DC-7s to cover equipment shortages when delivery of its Britannia turboprops was delayed in 1956. When the Comet reentered service in 1958, BOAC found itself with two undesirable fleets of aircraft, which were later sold at a loss of £51 million.

Company Perspectives:

British Airways is all about bringing people together, and taking them wherever they want to go. This applies as much to our employees as the 36 million people who travel with us every year. The travel industry is notoriously competitive, and we have certainly had our share of challenges over the past few years. We believe we now have a firm strategy in place that gives us good cause for optimism going forward.

South American operations were suspended in 1954 when the Comet was taken out of service. Operation of the route with shorter range aircraft was too costly. At the insistence of Argentina and Brazil, which claimed Britain had “lost interest” in South America, the routes were reopened in 1960. That same year the first of 15 Boeing 707 jetliners was delivered to BOAC.

British European Airways used a wide variety of aircraft for its operations and remained a good customer for British aircraft manufacturers. In 1964 the company accepted delivery of the first de Havilland Trident 1, a three-engine airliner capable of speeds up to 600 miles per hour. A few years later, when the company expressed an interest in purchasing a mixed fleet of Boeing 727s and 737s, it was instructed by the government to “buy British” instead. BEA complied, ordering BAC-11 Is and improved versions of the Trident.

BOAC’s cargo traffic was growing at an annual rate of 27 percent. Nevertheless, a sudden and unexplained drop in passenger traffic during 1961 left many of the world’s airline companies with “excess capacity,” or too many empty seats to fly profitably. At the end of the fiscal year BOAC’s accumulated deficit had grown to £64 million. The losses, however, were underwritten by the British government, which could not allow its flag carrier to go bankrupt.

BOAC and Air France agreed to commit funds to build a supersonic transport (SST) in 1962. In June the company became associated with the Cunard Steamship Company. A new company, BOAC-Cunard Ltd., was placed in charge of the trans-Atlantic air services in an attempt to capture a larger portion of the American travel markets.

The British government published a “White Paper” (a statement of government policy) that recommended a drastic reorganization of BOAC. In response, the company’s chairman, Sir Matthew Slattery, and the managing director, Sir Basil Small-piece, resigned. Britain’s minister for aviation appointed Sir Giles Guthrie as the new chairman and chief executive officer. Under Sir Giles Guthrie BOAC suspended its unprofitable services and rescheduled its equipment purchases and debt payments. After the financial situation had improved, the company continued to purchase new equipment and expand its flight network. In April of 1967 BOAC established its second around-the-world route and opened a new cargo terminal at Heathrow.

The company’s sister airline, BEA, had been paying close attention to consumer marketing for vacationers. In 1967 the company created a division called BEA Airtours Ltd., offering complete travel packages to a number of vacation spots. In May 1969 BOAC opened a passage to Japan via the North Pole. The route was shortened even farther when the Soviet Union granted BOAC landing rights in Moscow and a Siberian airlane to Tokyo.

On March 31, 1972, after six years of record profits, BOAC announced that it no longer owed any money to the government. Later, on July 17, following several recommendations on further reorganization of the state-owned airline companies, management of BEA and BOAC were coordinated under a new government agency called the British Airways Group. On April 1, 1974 the two companies were merged and renamed British Airways. A second reorganization of the internal management structure occurred in 1977.

The first British Airways’ Concorde was introduced in 1976. Jointly manufactured by British Aerospace and the French firm Aerospatiale, the supersonic Concorde was capable of carrying 100 passengers at the speed of 1,350 miles per hour at an altitude of 55,000 feet. A seven-hour flight from New York to London was cut nearly in half the time by the Concorde. British Airways employed additional Concordes on a number of international services, most notably London-Singapore, which was temporarily suspended through 1978 due to “political difficulties.”

Key Dates:

1916:: Predecessor Aircraft Transport & Travel Ltd. is founded.
1919:: The company inaugurates the world’s first scheduled international air service.
1933:: Service to India and Singapore is established.
1935:: British Airways is formed by the merger of three smaller airline companies.
1939:: British Airways and Imperial Airways are merged and nationalized to form British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).
1949:: British South American Airways (BSAA) is absorbed by BOAC.
1958:: The first successful jet trans-Atlantic service is completed.
1962:: BOAC and Air France agree to commit funds to build a supersonic transport (SST).
1967:: BOAC establishes its second around-the-world route.
1974:: The company is reorganized under the “British Airways” name.
1976:: British Airways and Air France simultaneously inaugurate the first SST Concordes into service.
1987:: British Airways is privatized.
1987:: British Airways acquires British Caledonian (BCal).
1988:: British Airways forms a marketing alliance with United Airlines that collapses two years later.
1992:: British Airways purchases 44 percent of USAir Inc.
1997:: The company sells its stake in USAir Inc.
1998:: “Oneworld” global alliance is launched between British Airways, American Airlines, Qantas, Canadian Airlines, and Cathay Pacific—a group that eventually grows to eight members.
2000:: British Airways’ London Eye observation wheel opens; 3 million people ride the wheel in its first year of operation.

Road to Privatization in the 1980s

In 1980 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed Lord (John) King as the new chairman of British Airways. His stated assignment was to prepare the airline for privatization (sale to private stockholders). Lord King’s first move was to adopt aggressive “American-style” marketing and management philosophies. As a result, he initiated a massive campaign to scale down the company and reduce costs. Additional unprofitable air services were terminated, and a staff reduction (begun under Lord King’s predecessor, Roy Watts) was continued. A British Airways official told Business Week magazine, “we had too many staff but couldn’t get rid of them because of the unions.” In order to utilize the excess labor, the company was forced to remain large. Lord King established a better relationship with labor, which had become more agreeable to layoffs and revisions of work rules. In three years the workforce was reduced from 60,000 to 38,000 without a strike.

On July 11, 1983, no fewer than 50 senior executives were fired. The company’s chief executive officer, Colin Marshall, hired in their place a team of younger executives (mostly with non-airline business backgrounds). The new executive staff initiated a series of programs to improve punctuality and service at the airline, whose BA acronym stood in many customers’ minds for “Bloody Awful.” They hired Landor Associates, a successful San Francisco-based design firm with considerable experience with airlines, to develop an entirely new image for British Airways. The result was controversial. The British Airways coat of arms and portion of the Union Jack on the airplane’s tail fin was bound to upset the more politically temperamental countries of the third world, which the company served. The familiar “Speedbird” logo, which harkened back to the days of Imperial Airways, was removed despite employee petitions to retain it.

British Airways also recognized a need to replace older airplanes in its fleet with more modern and efficient equipment. The company’s Lockheed TriStars were sold to the RAF for conversion into tankers, and the BAC-llls were sold because they would violate new noise regulations. British Airways leased a number of airplanes until new purchases could be made after the privatization.

The company was plagued by its decision to retain separate European and overseas divisions. The result was a perpetuation of the previous management regimes of BEA and BOAC. To rectify this problem the operation was further divided into eight regional groups involved in three different businesses: cargo, charter, and tours. Each of the eight groups was given increased autonomy and responsibility for its business and profitability.

The Laker Airways Skytrain, an initially successful cut-rate trans-Atlantic airline, was forced to close down due to what its chairman, Freddie Laker, claimed was a coordinated attack by a number of airlines to drive the company into bankruptcy. Laker charged the companies, which included British Airways, with violations of antitrust laws. He later settled out of court for £48 million, but in a subsequent civil suit British Airways was also required to issue travel coupons to passengers who claimed they were hurt by the collapse of Laker Airways.

Ironically, in the mid-1980s the company began advocating the deregulation of European airlines in the belief that it could compete more effectively than its rivals. Air France and Lufthansa in particular were reluctant to participate, claiming that deregulation would endanger the delicate market balance which took so many years to establish.

In 1985 British Airways was made a public limited company, but its stock was retained by the government until such time that it could be offered to the public. The privatization of British Airways (which was limited to a 51 percent sale) was delayed by a number of problems. The company’s chief domestic rival, British Caledonian, opposed British Airways’ privatization, claiming that the company already controlled 80 percent of the domestic market and was too large to compete against. But British Airways’ most significant obstacle to privatization involved reducing the debt that it accumulated during the 1970s, and increasing the company’s profitability. In February 1987 the privatization was finally consummated when 720.2 million shares of British Airways stock were sold to the public for one billion pounds (US $1.47 billion).

Poised for International Growth: Acquisitions and Alliances

British Caledonian, or BCal, was formed in 1970 through the merger of Caledonian Airways and British United Airways. For many years, BCal was British Airways’ only large domestic competitor, fighting vigorously under the direction of Sir Adam Thompson for more favorable operating rights from the British government. When Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority recommended the reallocation of British Airways routes to BCal in 1984, Lord King threatened to resign. Instead, British Airways was instructed to trade its profitable Middle East routes for some of BCal’s less profitable Latin American destinations. The Middle Eastern routes became much less popular during 1986 as a result of regional tensions and falling oil prices. BCal, which had been generating a fair profit, started to lose money and was faced with bankruptcy.

In July 1987 British Airways acquired BCal for £237 million in stock. The new airline had almost 200 aircraft, and by combining British Airways’ 560,000-kilometer-route structure with BCal’s unduplicated 110,000-kilometer network, now formed one of the largest airline companies in the world. Several smaller independent British airline companies unsuccessfully challenged the BA/BCal merger on the grounds that the new company would dominate both London’s Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, forcing them to relocate to the less accessible and underdeveloped field at Stansted.

With its dominance of the home market secure for the time being, British Airways aggressively expanded in Europe, North America, and the Pacific Rim over the next several years, aiming to become a global airline. Its first foray into the lucrative U.S. market came in 1988 when it formed a marketing alliance with United Airlines designed to feed customers from one carrier to the other and vice versa. This partnership set the pattern for British Airways’ expansion—it would not be based on forming new airlines outside England or acquiring them, but rather through strategic alliances. Nevertheless, this first partnership collapsed a little more than two years later when United became a direct competitor to British Airways once it had gained access to Heathrow in 1991, along with American Airlines. The two strongest airlines in the United States had purchased the Heathrow rights from the floundering Pan Am and TWA, immediately increasing competition in British Airways’ home market.

While the alliance with United was still operating, British Airways suffered losses in Europe in 1990 and 1991 because of the Gulf crisis in the Middle East. Shortly after, in July 1991, it entered into an alliance with Aeroflot in Russia to create a new airline called Air Russia. After several false starts over the next few years, this venture never got off the ground. Additional proposed alliances failed for assorted other reasons. Officials from British Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines held merger discussions in 1991 and 1992, but talks broke down over the valuation of the two firms. Later in 1992 British Airways attempted to purchase 44 percent of US Air Inc. for $750 million. American, United, and Delta Air Lines (the U.S. “Big Three”) vigorously lobbied against the deal and demanded enhanced access to the British market if the deal was to be approved by the U.S. government. In December the US Air purchase was blocked.

That same month the first in a string of alliances was struck when the airline paid £450 million for 25 percent of Qantas, the Australia-based international airline. British Airways next acquired a 49.9 percent stake in the leading French independent carrier TAT European Airlines, and later launched a start-up in Germany called Deutsche BA with 49 percent ownership. Through these alliances, British Airways enhanced its position in the Pacific Rim and Europe. It now refocused its attention across the Atlantic where it restructured an offer for a piece of USAir into a $400 million purchase of 25 percent of the company. This alliance received U.S. government approval. The government also approved a code-sharing arrangement that enabled the partners to offer their customers a seamless operation when they use both airlines to reach their destination.

While all this dealmaking was going on abroad, British Airways faced an embarrassing and potentially costly fight at home with Richard Branson’s upstart Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Since starting operations in the early 1980s, Virgin had made some inroads against British Airways primarily by focusing on customer service, something “Bloody Awful” BA had neglected for years. Branson filed suit against British Airways in 1991 alleging that British Airways had smeared Branson and his airline and conducted “dirty tricks” such as spreading rumors about Virgin’s insolvency. In 1993 the suit was settled out of court with British Airways offering a public apology and paying £500,000 to Branson and £110,000 to Virgin. The case also led to the resignation of Lord King. Second-in-command Colin Marshall took over as chairman. Further litigation followed between the two rivals, most seriously a $1 billion antitrust suit brought by Virgin in the United States. Various suits damaged British Airways’ reputation and led to comments such as the following from the Economist: “BA now looks … like an anxious, overbearing giant trying to squash a feisty little rival.”

With its Virgin difficulties continuing, British Airways’ overseas partners suffered huge losses: in 1993 Qantas lost $271 million, while in 1994 TAT lost $60 million and USAir lost $350 million. The situation at USAir was so grim that British Airways declared that they would hold back an additional $450 million investment in the firm until the carrier reestablished itself in the black. The alliance continued to deteriorate and in pursuit of more promising partnerships, British Airways eventually sold its stakes in USAir in 1997.

As it approached the long-awaited 1997 deregulation of the European airline industry, British Airways was on solid ground. In the process of becoming one of the largest airlines in the world, it had also managed to remain one of the most profitable.

In mid-1996 British Airways announced plans for a broad alliance with American Airlines. Under this plan, the two carriers would coordinate schedules and pricing, code-share (sell seats) and more importantly, share profits and revenues. Together they submitted a joint application to the U.S. Department of Transportation requesting approval of the proposed venture and granting antitrust immunity. Their plan was vehemently attacked by competitors on the basis that it would permit the two airlines to monopolize cross-Atlantic traffic between Heathrow and the U.S. Both airlines had, in fact, previously refused to relinquish takeoff and landing slots at Heathrow; combined, they would control 85 percent of the peak takeoff slots in the largest single aviation market in the world. Intermittent negotiations and attempts to secure antitrust immunity continued into 2001, with both airlines struggling to agree on terms more conducive to an “open skies” agreement between the two countries. Competitors United Airlines and Lufthansa had already secured antitrust immunity and had prospered from “open skies” between the U.S. and Germany. Air France and Delta Airlines now threatened to beat British Airways and American to the punch.

Separately, the “Oneworld” alliance formed in 1998 by British Airways and a group of others eventually became one of the most successful. Officially launched in February 1999 by British Airways, American Airlines, Qantas, Canadian Airlines, and Cathay Pacific, it provided an interchangeable network for frequent fliers to claim rewards. The group eventually grew to eight members and 23 affiliates by 2001, and collectively served more than 200 million passengers in 133 countries with 566 destinations.

British Airways continued to expand its network through a combination of new routes, code-sharing agreements, and franchise partnerships with both domestic and international carriers. By 2001 it had acquired CityFlyer Express and British Regional Airlines Group (BRAL), and a 9 percent stake in Spain’s Iberia Airlines.

On the Brink: Preparing for Industry Consolidation and a Global Future

Starting in the mid-1990s, British Airways began investing in advanced information technologies to build a “virtual airline” to expedite ticketing, scheduling, and customer service functions. It also began outsourcing “non-core” operations that had been previously overstaffed—ground transport services, in-flight catering, and heavy-engine maintenance—to reduce costs and allow the company to refocus squarely on operating its air network. The outsourcing measures frustrated industrial relations and failed to significantly reduce employee numbers. Further, industry analysts speculated that the airline would be more vulnerable to an economic downturn because it would no longer have secondary sources of revenue to offset the accompanying downturn in air travel revenues. Not surprisingly, when the air travel market slowed in 1998, British Airways’ net profits of $330 million dropped precipitously to $34 million.

Declining profitability during the late 1990s led the airline to concentrate on the premium market for business travelers. By combining fleet and network changes, it could increase the number of business passengers, lower costs, and cater to a more profitable section of the market.

Tapped for the role of chief executive in May 2000, Rod Eddington set out to reduce exposure in unprofitable and non-core areas, selling stakes in Air Liberté and even placing its own no-frills carrier, Go (launched only in 1998), on the market. Plans to build Gatwick into a second international hub were abandoned. Instead, unprofitable routes were suspended and key longhaul routes were relocated to Heathrow. Smaller aircraft, specifically Boeing 777s, would replace the older, larger aircraft and play a major role in a new fleet strategy. With bigger business travel sections, each new aircraft could seat a greater number of premium business travelers and help cut excess capacity. It was anticipated that by 2002 more than half of British Airways’ fleet would consist of Boeing 777s.

In an effort to create a more appealing environment for its premium business travelers, British Airways invested in costly product and service enhancements. These included passenger seats that expanded into six-foot flat beds for in-flight sleeping; new state-of-the-art, in-flight entertainment; and modernized airport lounges with an upscale look and feel.

A veteran of Cathay Pacific and Ansett, Eddington’s approach improved both operations and morale. During his first year, the airline faced a number of adversities. Following a tragic Air France Concorde accident in Paris in 2000, British Airways’ entire Concorde fleet was grounded. In addition, foot-and-mouth disease caused a serious decline in travel and tourism in England, and rising oil prices doubled fuel prices.

A small highlight of 2000, the British Airways London Eye observation wheel opened in London. The London Eye, billed as the world’s highest observation wheel, offers passengers panoramic views of the city from 450 feet above the river Thames. During the wheel’s first year of operation, 3 million people rode.

By early 2001, the British Airways fleet and product strategy appeared to be working. Two positive trends had emerged: premium business traffic was on the rise and costs were on the decline. Pretax profits in 2000-2001 amounted to £145 million, a marked improvement over the previous year’s £5 million. The impact of the U.S. economic slowdown remained to be determined, though, and the airline faced difficult conditions in both passenger and cargo markets. British Airways’ fleet of seven Concordes was expected to return to service after a full year of safety modifications and further comfort upgrades. However, the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., in September 2001, added new levels of financial stress and uncertainty to the travel and airline industries.

European airlines found themselves on the brink of momentous change in 2001. The potential for industry-wide consolidation had begun to fuel discussions of cross-border alliances—even cross-border mergers—that would be necessary to survive the ensuing instability. British Airways was certain to take aggressive action in staking a claim. In June 2001, it resumed talks with KLM for a £5 billion merger between the two, which could create the world’s third-largest airline. Chief Executive Eddington vowed to continue pressing European regulatory authorities to allow the cross-border consolidation process, declaring “[Consolidation] is a lengthy process (it took 30 years in the United States), but it is both inevitable and necessary if we’re to develop our position in the long-term. And I intend that British Airways will be in the vanguard of that process.”

Principal Subsidiaries

Air Miles Travel Promotions Ltd.; BA & AA Holdings Ltd. (90.0%); Bedford Associates Inc.; Britair Holdings Ltd.; British Airways Capital Ltd. (89.0%); British Airways (European Operations at Gatwick) Ltd.; British Airways Finance B.V.; British Airways Holdings Ltd.; British Airways Holidays Ltd.; British Airways Maintenance Cardiff Ltd.; British Airways Regional Ltd.; British Airways Travel Shops Ltd.; British Asia Airways Ltd.; City Flyer Express Ltd.; Deutsche BA Luftfahrgesellschaft GmbH; Go Fly Limited; Speedbird Insurance Company Ltd.; The Plimsoll Line Ltd.; World Network Services Pvt Ltd.; Concorde International Travel Pty Ltd. (50.0%).

Principal Competitors

Deutsche Lufthansa AG; Societe Air France; American Airlines; KLM Royal Dutch Airlines; Singapore Airlines Limited; Scandinavian Airlines System; Swissair Group; Japan Airlines Company, Ltd.; UAL Corporation (United Airlines); Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited.

British Airways Plc

views updated May 14 2018

British Airways Plc

P.O. Box 10
Speedbird House
Heathrow Airport
Hounslow, Middlesex TW6 2JA
England
01-759-5511

Public Limited Company
Incorporated: March 31, 1924 as Imperial Air
Transportation, Ltd.
Employees: 36,500
Sales: £3.149 billion (US$ 4.723 billion)
Market value: £482 million (US$ 723 million)
Stock Index: London

British Airways’ earliest predecessor was Aircraft Transport & Travel, Ltd., founded in 1916. On August 25, 1919 this company inaugurated the world’s first scheduled international air service, with a converted de Havilland 4A day bomber leaving Hounslow (later Heathrow) Airport for London and also Le Bourget in Paris. Eight days later another company, Handley Page Transport, Ltd., started a cross-channel service between London’s Cricklewood Field and both Paris and Brussels.

That same year Britain’s advisory committee for civil aviation proposed plans for establishing a world airline network linking Britain with Canada, India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Due to the fact that airplanes capable of crossing wide stretches of water were not yet available, the committee recommended that first priority be given to a route to India operated by state-assisted private enterprise.

Progress was made quickly. Before the end of the year the British government was operating a service to Karachi and had established a network of 43 Royal Air Force (RAF) landing strips through Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. Meanwhile, strong competition from subsidized foreign airline companies had forced many of the private British air carriers out of business. By March of 1921 all British airline companies had suspended their operations. The government responded with a pledge to keep the British companies flying, using its own form of subsidization.

In January of 1923 Parliament appointed the Civil Air Transport Subsidies Committee to form a single British international air carrier from existing companies. On March 31, 1924 the Daimler Airway, British Marine Air Navigation, Instone Air Line and Handley Page merged to become Imperial Air Transport.

In 1925 Imperial Airways operated a number of European routes while it surveyed a route across the Arabian desert from Cairo to Basra in present-day Iraq. The airline was faced with a number of problems on this route. The desert was featureless, making it easy to get lost. Water stops and meteorological and radio stations were difficult to maintain. Basra was a major terminal on the route to India. However, on January 7, 1927 the Persian government forbade Britain the use of its airspace, blocking all flights to India. Negotiations reopened the airspace two years later, but not before generating a demand for longer range aircraft.

Passengers flying to India flew from London via Paris to Basel, where they boarded a train for Genoa. A flying boat then took them on to Alexandria, where they flew in stages to Karachi. The passage to India, previously three weeks by sea, had been reduced to one week by air.

Imperial Airways service to Calcutta was established in July of 1933, to Rangoon in September and to Singapore in December. In January of the following year the Australia’s Queensland and Northern Territories Air Service (Qantas) inaugurated a route linking Singapore with Brisbane. The passage to Australia could be completed in twelve and a half days.

A commercial service through Africa was opened in 1931 with flying boats linking Cairo with Mwanza on Lake Victoria. In April of 1933 the route was extended to Cape Town, the trip from London taking ten and a half days. An east-west trans-African route from Khartoum in the Sudan to Kano in northern Nigeria was established in February of 1936. This route completed a world network which linked nearly all the countries of the British Empire.

The primary source of revenue on the network was not from transporting passengers but mail. However, an increase in demand for more passenger seating and cargo space generated a need for larger airplanes. Britain’s primary supplier of flying boats, the Short Company, developed a new model, designated the C-class, with 24 seats and weighing 18 tons. Since it had an increased range and flew 145 miles per hour, it was able to simply bypass “politically difficult areas.” The Short C-class went into service in October of 1936. A year later Imperial Airways made its first trans-Atlantic crossing with a flying boat equipped with extra fuel tanks. However, it was Pan Am, with more sophisticated and updated Boeing airplanes, which was first to schedule a regular trans-Atlantic service.

Imperial Airways was formed with the intention of being Britain’s “chosen instrument” for overseas air service. On its European services, however, Imperial was competing with the British Continental airlines and an aggressive newcomer called British Airways. British Airways was created in October of 1935 by the merger of three smaller airlines companies. Three months later the company acquired a fleet of Lockheed 10 Electras which were the fastest airplanes yet available. The competition from British Airways threatened the “chosen instrument” so much that in November of 1937 a Parliamentary committee proposed the nationalization and merger of Imperial and British Airways. When the reorganization was completed on November 24, 1939, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was formed.

The creation of BOAC was overshadowed by the declaration of war on Germany the previous September. The Secretary of State for Air assumed control of all British air services, including BOAC. Within a year Italy had entered the war and France had fallen. Britain’s air routes through Europe had been eliminated. However, British flying boats continued to ferry personnel and war cargo between London and West Africa with an intermediate stop at Lisbon in neutral Portugal. The air link to Khartoum maintained Britain’s connection to the “Horseshoe Route,” from Cape Town through East Africa, Arabia, India and Singapore to Australia. When Malaya and Singapore were later invaded by the Japanese, BOAC and Qantas opened a non-stop service between Ceylon and Perth in Western Australia. BOAC transported ballbearings from neutral Sweden using a route which was dangerously exposed to the German Luftwaffe. BOAC also operated a service for returning flight crews to North America after they delivered American and Canadian-built aircraft to the Royal Air Force.

When the war ended BOAC had a fleet of 160 aircraft and an aerial network which covered 54,000 miles. The South American destinations of BOAC were assigned to a new state-owned airline, British South American Airways (BSAA), in March of 1946. Similarly, the European services were turned over to British European Airways (BEA) on August 1, 1946. After the war Britain reestablished its overseas services to the nations of its Empire. Some of the nations which had recently gained their independence from Britain received advice (and often finance) from BOAC.

In order to remain competitive with the American airline companies, BOAC purchased Lockheed Constellations, the most advanced commercial aircraft of the day. They were later joined by Boeing 377 Stratocruisers and Canadair Argonauts (modified DC-4s). BE A operated generally smaller airplanes and more frequent flights between the British Isles and Continental Europe. In 1948 it joined other Allied airline companies in the airlift to Berlin during the Soviet blockade.

Following a series of equipment failures at BSAA, the Civil Aviation ministry declared that the company should re-merge with BOAC. On July 30, 1949, BSAA was absorbed by BOAC.

Even though its passenger load had steadily increased, BOAC accumulated a debt of £32 million in the five years from 1946 to 1951. Much of this was due to “recapitalization,” or purchasing new equipment; the British-built Handley Page Hermes and de Havilland’s DH Comet 1, the world’s first jetliners, were delivered to BOAC.

In January of 1954 one of BOAC’s Comets exploded near Elba in the Mediterranean. Another Comet crashed near Naples only 16 days after an investigation of the first crash was concluded. As a result, the Comet’s certificate of airworthiness was withdrawn and a full investigation was ordered. In the final report it was determined that the Comet’s pressurized cabin was inadequately designed to withstand low air pressures at altitudes over 25,000 feet. When the airplane reached that altitude it simply exploded. The cabin was strengthened and the jet re-introduced in 1958 as the DH Comet 4.

The company was forced to purchase propeller-driven DC-7s to cover equipment shortages when delivery of its Britannia turbo-props was delayed in 1956. When the Comet re-entered service BOAC found itself with two undesirable fleets of aircraft which were later sold at a loss of £51 million ($122 million).

South American operations were suspended in 1954 when the Comet was taken out of service. Operation of the route with shorter range aircraft was too costly. At the insistence of Argentina and Brazil, which claimed Britain had “lost interest” in South America, the routes were reopened in 1960. That same year the first of 15 Boeing 707 jetliners was delivered to BOAC.

British European Airways used a wide variety of aircraft for its operations and remained a good customer for British aircraft manufacturers. In 1964 the company accepted delivery of the first de Havilland Trident 1, a three-engine airliner capable of speeds up to 600 miles per hour. A few years later, when the company expressed an interest in purchasing a mixed fleet of Boeing 727s and 737s, it was instructed by the government to “buy British” instead. BEA complied, ordering BAC-111s and improved versions of the Trident.

BOAC’s cargo traffic was growing at an annual rate of 27%. However, a sudden and unexplained drop in passenger traffic during 1961 left many of the world’s airline companies with “excess capacity,” or too many empty seats to fly profitably. At the end of the fiscal year BOAC’s accumulated deficit had grown to £64 million. The losses, however, were underwritten by the British government, which could not allow its flag carrier to go bankrupt.

BOAC and Air France agreed to commit funds for the buildings of a supersonic transport (SST) in 1962. In June the company became associated with the Cunard Steamship Company. A new company, BOAC-Cunard Ltd., was placed in charge of the trans-Atlantic air services in an attempt to capture a larger portion of the American travel markets.

The British published a “White Paper” (a statement of government policy) which recommended a drastic reorganization of BOAC. In response, the company’s chairman, Sir Matthew Slattery, and the managing director, Sir Basil Smallpiece, resigned. Britain’s minister for aviation appointed Sir Giles Guthrie as the new chairman and chief executive officer. Under Sir Giles BOAC suspended its unprofitable services and rescheduled its equipment purchases and debt payments. After the financial situation had improved, the company continued to purchase new equipment and expand its flight network. In April of 1967 BOAC established its second around-the-world route and opened a new cargo terminal at Heathrow.

The company’s sister airline, BEA, had been paying close attention to consumer marketing for vacationers. In 1967 the company created a division called BEA Airtours Ltd., offering complete travel packages to a number of vacation spots. In May of 1969 BOAC opened a passage to Japan via the North Pole. The route was shortened even further when the Soviet Union granted BO AC landing rights in Moscow and a Siberian airlane to Tokyo.

On March 31, after six years of record profits, BO AC announced that it no longer owed any money to the government. Later, on July 17, 1972, following several recommendations on further reorganization of the state-owned airline companies, management of BE A and BO AC were coordinated under a new government agency called the British Airways Group. On April 1, 1974 the two companies were merged and renamed British Airways. A second reorganization of the internal management structure took place in 1977.

The first British Airways’ Concorde was introduced in 1976. Jointly manufactured by British Aerospace and the French firm Aerospatiale, the supersonic Concorde was capable of carrying 100 passengers at the speed of 1350 miles per hour at an altitude of 55,000 feet. A seven-hour flight from New York to London was nearly reduced to half the time by the Concorde. British Airways employed additional Concordes on a number of international services, most notably London-Singapore, which was temporarily suspended through 1978 due to “political difficulties.”

In 1980 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed Lord (John) King as the new chairman of British Airways. His stated assignment was to prepare the airline for privatization (sale to private stockholders). Lord King’s first move was to adopt aggressive “American-style” marketing and management philosophies. As a result, he initiated a massive campaign to scale down the company and reduce costs. More unprofitable air services were terminated, and a staff reduction (begun under Lord King’s predecessor, Roy Watts) was continued. A British Airways official told Business Week magazine that, “we had too many staff but couldn’t get rid of them because of the unions.” In order to utilize the excess labor, the company was forced to remain large. Lord King established a better relationship with labor, which had become more agreeable to layoffs and revisions of work rules. In three years the work force was reduced from 60,000 to 38,000 without a strike.

On July 11, 1983, no fewer than 50 senior executives were fired. The company’s chief executive officer, Colin Marshall, hired in their place a team of younger executives (mostly with non-airline business backgrounds). The new executive staff initiated a series of programs to improve punctuality and service at the airline. They hired Landor Associates, a successful San Francisco-based design firm with considerable experience with airlines, to develop an entirely new image for British Airways. The result was controversial. The British Airways coat of arms and portion of the Union Jack on the airplanes’ tail fin was bound to upset the more politically temperamental countries of the third world which the company serves. The familiar “Speedbird” logo which dates back to the days of Imperial Airways was removed despite employee petitions to retain it.

British Airways also recognized a need to replace older airplanes in its fleet with more modern and efficient equipment. The company’s Lockheed TriStars were sold to the RAF for conversion into tankers, and the BAC-111s were sold because they would violate new noise regulations. British Airways is currently leasing a number of airplanes until it makes a decision on new purchases. This is not likely to occur until after the privatization.

The company was plagued by its decision to retain separate European and overseas divisions. The result was a perpetuation of the previous management regimes of BEA and BOAC. To rectify this problem the operation was further divided into eight regional groups involved in three different businesses: cargo, charter and tours. Each of the eight groups has increased autonomy and responsibility for its business and profitability.

The Laker Airways Skytrain, an initially successful cut-rate trans-Atlantic airline, was forced to close down due to what its chairman, Freddie Laker, claimed was a coordinated attack by a number of airlines to drive the company into bankruptcy. Laker charged the companies, which included British Airways, with violations of anti-trust laws. He later settled out of court for $48 million, but in a subsequent civil suit British Airways was also required to issue travel coupons to passengers who claimed they were hurt by the collapse of Laker Airways.

Ironically, the company is now advocating the deregulation of European air fares in the belief that it can compete more effectively than its rivals. But Air France and Lufthansa in particular are reluctant to participate, claiming that deregulation would endanger the delicate market balance which took so many years to establish.

In 1985 British Airways was made a public limited company, but all its stock was retained by the government until such time that it could be offered to the public. The privatization of British Airways (which will be limited to a 51% sale) has been delayed by a number of problems. The company’s chief domestic rival, British Caledonian, opposes British Airways’ privatization claiming that the company already controls 80% of the domestic market and is too large to compete against. However, British Airways’ most significant obstacle to privatization involved reducing the debt which it accumulated during the 1970s, and increasing the company’s profitability. In January of 1987 the British government announced that 720.2 million shares of British Airways stock would be sold to the public for one billion pounds ($1.47 billion).

British Caledonian, or BCal, was formed in 1970 through the merger of Caledonian Airways and British United Airways. For many years, BCal was British Airways’ only large domestic competitor, fighting vigorously under the direction of Sir Adam Thompson for more favorable operating rights from the British government. When Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority recommended the reallocation of British Airways routes to BCal in 1984, Lord King threatened to resign. Instead, British Airways was instructed to trade its profitable Middle East routes for some of BCal’s less profitable Latin American destinations. The Middle Eastern routes became much less popular during 1986 as a result of regional tensions and falling oil prices. BCal, which had been generating a fair profit, started to lose money and was faced with bankruptcy.

In July of 1987 it was announced that British Airways had reached agreement with BCal wherein it would acquire the airline for £237 million in stock. The new airline would have almost 200 aircraft, and combine British Airways’ 560,000-kilometer route structure with BCal’s largely unduplicated 110,000-kilometer network, forming one of the largest airline companies in the world. Several smaller independent British airline companies threatened to challenge the BA/BCal merger on the grounds that the new company would dominate both London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports, forcing them to relocate to the less accessible and underdeveloped field at Stansted.

In the event of a successful merger, British Airways would be better able to compete with other international airlines (primarily the Americans), and perhaps be more successful in its attempt to deregulate the European airline markets. As a substantially public company, British Airways has followed the example of American airline companies by increasing its size by external growth.

Principal Subsidiaries

Alta Holidays Ltd.; British Airways Tour Operations Ltd.; British Airtours Ltd.; British Airways Associated Companies Ltd.; British Airways Engine Overhaul Ltd.; Overseas Air Travel Ltd.; British Airways Helicopters Ltd.; Martin Rooks & Company Ltd.; The Airways Housing Trust Ltd.; Travel Automation Services Ltd.

British Airways PLC

views updated May 21 2018

British Airways PLC

P.O. Box 10
Speedbird House
Heathrow Airport
Hounslow, Greater London TW6 2JA
England
81 759-5511
Fax: 81 897-1889

Public Company
Incorporated: 1924 as Imperial Air Transportation, Ltd.
Employees: 50,060
Sales: £7.177 billion (US$9.78 billion)
Stock Exchanges: London
SICs: 4500 Transportation by Air; 4725 Tour Operators

British Airways PLC is the largest international airline in the world. It is based at Heathrow Airport in London, the busiest international airport in the world, and has a global flight network through such partners as USAir in the United States, Qantas in Australia, and TAT European Airlines in France. Via its own operations and those of its alliance partners, British Airways serves 95 million passengers a year using 441 airports in 86 countries and more than 1,000 planes.

British Airways’ earliest predecessor was Aircraft Transport & Travel, Ltd., founded in 1916. On August 25, 1919 this company inaugurated the world’s first scheduled international air service, with a converted de Havilland 4A day bomber leaving Hounslow (later Heathrow) Airport for London and also Le Bourget in Paris. Eight days later another company, Handley Page Transport, Ltd., started a cross-channel service between London’s Cricklewood Field and both Paris and Brussels.

That same year Britain’s advisory committee for civil aviation proposed plans for establishing a world airline network linking Britain with Canada, India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Because airplanes capable of crossing wide stretches of water were not yet available, the committee recommended that first priority be given to a route to India operated by state-assisted private enterprise.

Progress was made quickly. Before the end of the year the British government was operating a service to Karachi and had established a network of 43 Royal Air Force (RAF) landing strips through Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. Meanwhile, strong competition from subsidized foreign airline companies had forced many of the private British air carriers out of business. By March 1921 all British airline companies had suspended their operations. The government responded with a pledge to keep the British companies flying, using its own form of subsidization.

In January 1923 Parliament appointed the Civil Air Transport Subsidies Committee to form a single British international air carrier from existing companies. On March 31, 1924 the Daimler Airway, British Marine Air Navigation, Instone Air Line, and Handley Page merged to become Imperial Air Transport.

In 1925 Imperial Airways operated a number of European routes while it surveyed a route across the Arabian desert from Cairo to Basra in present-day Iraq. The airline was faced with a number of problems on this route. The desert was featureless, making it easy to get lost. Water stops and meteorological and radio stations were difficult to maintain. Basra was a major terminal on the route to India. However, on January 7, 1927 the Persian government forbade Britain the use of its airspace, blocking all flights to India. Negotiations reopened the airspace two years later, but not before generating a demand for longer range aircraft.

Passengers flying to India flew from London via Paris to Basel, where they boarded a train for Genoa. A flying boat then took them on to Alexandria, where they flew in stages to Karachi. The passage to India, previously three weeks by sea, had been reduced to one week by air.

Imperial Airways service to Calcutta was established in July 1933, to Rangoon in September, and to Singapore in December. In January of the following year the Australia’s Queensland and Northern Territories Air Service (Qantas) inaugurated a route linking Singapore with Brisbane. The passage to Australia could be completed in twelve-and-a-half days.

A commercial service through Africa was opened in 1931 with flying boats linking Cairo with Mwanza on Lake Victoria. In April 1933 the route was extended to Cape Town, the trip from London taking ten-and-a-half days. An east-west trans-African route from Khartoum in the Sudan to Kano in northern Nigeria was established in February 1936. This route completed a world network which linked nearly all the countries of the British Empire.

The primary source of revenue on the network was not from transporting passengers but mail. Nevertheless, an increase in demand for more passenger seating and cargo space generated a need for larger airplanes. Britain’s primary supplier of flying boats, the Short Company, developed a new model, designated the C-class, with 24 seats and weighing 18 tons. Since it had an increased range and flew 145 miles per hour, it was able to simply bypass “politically difficult areas.” The Short C-class went into service in October 1936. A year later Imperial Airways made its first trans-Atlantic crossing with a flying boat equipped with extra fuel tanks. However, it was Pan Am, with more sophisticated and updated Boeing airplanes, which was first to schedule a regular trans-Atlantic service.

Imperial Airways was formed with the intention of being Britain’s “chosen instrument” for overseas air service. On its European services, however, Imperial was competing with the British Continental airlines and an aggressive newcomer called British Airways. British Airways was created in October 1935 by the merger of three smaller airline companies. Three months later the company acquired a fleet of Lockheed 10 Electras which were the fastest airplanes yet available. The competition from British Airways threatened the “chosen instrument” so much that in November 1937 a Parliamentary committee proposed the nationalization and merger of Imperial and British Airways. When the reorganization was completed on November 24, 1939, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was formed.

The creation of BOAC was overshadowed by the declaration of war on Germany the previous September. The Secretary of State for Air assumed control of all British air services, including BOAC. Within a year Italy had entered the war and France had fallen. Britain’s air routes through Europe had been eliminated. British flying boats, however, continued to ferry personnel and war cargo between London and West Africa with an intermediate stop at Lisbon in neutral Portugal. The air link to Khartoum maintained Britain’s connection to the “Horseshoe Route,” from Cape Town through East Africa, Arabia, India, and Singapore to Australia. When Malaya and Singapore were later invaded by the Japanese, BOAC and Qantas opened a nonstop service between Ceylon and Perth in Western Australia. BOAC transported ball bearings from neutral Sweden using a route which was dangerously exposed to the German Luftwaffe. BOAC also operated a service for returning flight crews to North America after they delivered American- and Canadian-built aircraft to the Royal Air Force.

When the war ended BOAC had a fleet of 160 aircraft and an aerial network that covered 54,000 miles. The South American destinations of BOAC were assigned to a new state-owned airline, British South American Airways (BSAA), in March 1946. Similarly, the European services were turned over to British European Airways (BEA) on August 1, 1946. After the war Britain reestablished its overseas services to the nations of its empire. Some of the nations which had recently gained their independence from Britain received advice (and often finance) from BOAC.

In order to remain competitive with the American airline companies, BOAC purchased Lockheed Constellations, the most advanced commercial aircraft of the day. They were later joined by Boeing 377 Stratocruisers and Canadair Argonauts (modified DC-4s). BEA operated generally smaller airplanes and more frequent flights between the British Isles and Continental Europe. In 1948 it joined other Allied airline companies in the airlift to Berlin during the Soviet blockade.

Following a series of equipment failures at BSAA, the Civil Aviation ministry declared that the company should reemerge with BOAC. On July 30, 1949, BSAA was absorbed by BOAC. Even though its passenger load had steadily increased, BOAC accumulated a debt of £32 million in the five years from 1946 to 1951. Much of this was due to “recapitalization,” or purchasing new equipment; the British-built Handley Page Hermes and de Havilland’s DH Comet 1, the world’s first jetliners, were delivered to BOAC.

In January 1954 one of BOAC’s Comets exploded near Elba in the Mediterranean. Another Comet crashed near Naples only 16 days after an investigation of the first crash was concluded. As a result, the Comet’s certificate of airworthiness was withdrawn and a full investigation was ordered. In the final report it was determined that the Comet’s pressurized cabin was inadequately designed to withstand low air pressures at altitudes over 25,000 feet. When the airplane reached that altitude it simply exploded. The cabin was strengthened and the jet reintroduced in 1958 as the DH Comet 4.

The company was forced to purchase propeller-driven DC-7s to cover equipment shortages when delivery of its Britannia turbo-props was delayed in 1956. When the Comet reentered service BOAC found itself with two undesirable fleets of aircraft which were later sold at a loss of £51 million ($122 million).

South American operations were suspended in 1954 when the Comet was taken out of service. Operation of the route with shorter range aircraft was too costly. At the insistence of Argentina and Brazil, which claimed Britain had “lost interest” in South America, the routes were reopened in 1960. That same year the first of 15 Boeing 707 jetliners was delivered to BOAC.

British European Airways used a wide variety of aircraft for its operations and remained a good customer for British aircraft manufacturers. In 1964 the company accepted delivery of the first de Havilland Trident 1, a three-engine airliner capable of speeds up to 600 miles per hour. A few years later, when the company expressed an interest in purchasing a mixed fleet of Boeing 727s and 737s, it was instructed by the government to “buy British” instead. BEA complied, ordering BAC-11 Is and improved versions of the Trident.

BOAC’s cargo traffic was growing at an annual rate of 27 percent. Nevertheless, a sudden and unexplained drop in passenger traffic during 1961 left many of the world’s airline companies with “excess capacity,” or too many empty seats to fly profitably. At the end of the fiscal year BOAC’s accumulated deficit had grown to £64 million. The losses, however, were underwritten by the British government, which could not allow its flag carrier to go bankrupt.

BOAC and Air France agreed to commit funds for the buildings of a supersonic transport (SST) in 1962. In June the company became associated with the Cunard Steamship Company. A new company, BOAC-Cunard Ltd., was placed in charge of the trans-Atlantic air services in an attempt to capture a larger portion of the American travel markets.

The British government published a “White Paper” (a statement of government policy) which recommended a drastic reorganization of BOAC. In response, the company’s chairman, Sir Matthew Slattery, and the managing director, Sir Basil Smallpiece, resigned. Britain’s minister for aviation appointed Sir Giles Guthrie as the new chairman and chief executive officer. Under Sir Giles BOAC suspended its unprofitable services and rescheduled its equipment purchases and debt payments. After the financial situation had improved, the company continued to purchase new equipment and expand its flight network. In April of 1967 BOAC established its second around-the-world route and opened a new cargo terminal at Heathrow.

The company’s sister airline, BEA, had been paying close attention to consumer marketing for vacationers. In 1967 the company created a division called BEA Airtours Ltd., offering complete travel packages to a number of vacation spots. In May 1969 BOAC opened a passage to Japan via the North Pole. The route was shortened even further when the Soviet Union granted BOAC landing rights in Moscow and a Siberian airlane to Tokyo.

On March 31, 1972, after six years of record profits, BOAC announced that it no longer owed any money to the government. Later, on July 17, following several recommendations on further reorganization of the state-owned airline companies, management of BEA and BOAC were coordinated under a new government agency called the British Airways Group. On April 1, 1974 the two companies were merged and renamed British Airways. A second reorganization of the internal management structure took place in 1977.

The first British Airways’ Concorde was introduced in 1976. Jointly manufactured by British Aerospace and the French firm Aerospatiale, the supersonic Concorde was capable of carrying 100 passengers at the speed of 1,350 miles per hour at an altitude of 55,000 feet. A seven-hour flight from New York to London was nearly reduced to half the time by the Concorde. British Airways employed additional Concordes on a number of international services, most notably London-Singapore, which was temporarily suspended through 1978 due to “political difficulties.”

In 1980 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed Lord (John) King as the new chairman of British Airways. His stated assignment was to prepare the airline for privatization (sale to private stockholders). Lord King’s first move was to adopt aggressive “American-style” marketing and management philosophies. As a result, he initiated a massive campaign to scale down the company and reduce costs. More unprofitable air services were terminated, and a staff reduction (begun under Lord King’s predecessor, Roy Watts) was continued. A British Airways official told Business Week magazine that, “we had too many staff but couldn’t get rid of them because of the unions.” In order to utilize the excess labor, the company was forced to remain large. Lord King established a better relationship with labor, which had become more agreeable to layoffs and revisions of work rules. In three years the work force was reduced from 60,000 to 38,000 without a strike.

On July 11, 1983, no fewer than 50 senior executives were fired. The company’s chief executive officer, Colin Marshall, hired in their place a team of younger executives (mostly with nonairline business backgrounds). The new executive staff initiated a series of programs to improve punctuality and service at the airline, whose BA acronym stood in many customers’ minds for “Bloody Awful.” They hired Landor Associates, a successful San Francisco-based design firm with considerable experience with airlines, to develop an entirely new image for British Airways. The result was controversial. The British Airways coat of arms and portion of the Union Jack on the airplane’s tail fin was bound to upset the more politically temperamental countries of the third world which the company serves. The familiar “Speedbird” logo which dates back to the days of Imperial Airways was removed despite employee petitions to retain it.

British Airways also recognized a need to replace older airplanes in its fleet with more modern and efficient equipment. The company’s Lockheed TriStars were sold to the RAF for conversion into tankers, and the BAC-111s were sold because they would violate new noise regulations. British Airways leased a number of airplanes until new purchases could be made after the privatization.

The company was plagued by its decision to retain separate European and overseas divisions. The result was a perpetuation of the previous management regimes of BEA and BOAC. To rectify this problem the operation was further divided into eight regional groups involved in three different businesses: cargo, charter, and tours. Each of the eight groups has increased autonomy and responsibility for its business and profitability.

The Laker Airways Skytrain, an initially successful cut-rate trans-Atlantic airline, was forced to close down due to what its chairman, Freddie Laker, claimed was a coordinated attack by a number of airlines to drive the company into bankruptcy. Laker charged the companies, which included British Airways, with violations of antitrust laws. He later settled out of court for $48 million, but in a subsequent civil suit British Airways was also required to issue travel coupons to passengers who claimed they were hurt by the collapse of Laker Airways.

Ironically, in the mid-1980s the company began advocating the deregulation of European air fares in the belief that it could compete more effectively than its rivals. But Air France and Lufthansa in particular were reluctant to participate, claiming that deregulation would endanger the delicate market balance which took so many years to establish.

In 1985 British Airways was made a public limited company, but all its stock was retained by the government until such time that it could be offered to the public. The privatization of British Airways (which was limited to a 51 percent sale) was delayed by a number of problems. The company’s chief domestic rival, British Caledonian, opposed British Airways’ privatization claiming that the company already controlled 80 percent of the domestic market and was too large to compete against. But British Airways’ most significant obstacle to privatization involved reducing the debt that it accumulated during the 1970s, and increasing the company’s profitability. In February 1987 the privatization was finally consummated when 720.2 million shares of British Airways stock were sold to the public for one billion pounds ($1.47 billion).

British Caledonian, or BCal, was formed in 1970 through the merger of Caledonian Airways and British United Airways. For many years, BCal was British Airways’ only large domestic competitor, fighting vigorously under the direction of Sir Adam Thompson for more favorable operating rights from the British government. When Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority recommended the reallocation of British Airways routes to BCal in 1984, Lord King threatened to resign. Instead, British Airways was instructed to trade its profitable Middle East routes for some of BCal’s less profitable Latin American destinations. The Middle Eastern routes became much less popular during 1986 as a result of regional tensions and falling oil prices. BCal, which had been generating a fair profit, started to lose money and was faced with bankruptcy.

In July 1987 British Airways acquired BCal for £237 million in stock. The new airline had almost 200 aircraft, and combined British Airways’ 560,000-kilometer route structure with BCal’s largely unduplicated 110,000-kilometer network, forming one of the largest airline companies in the world. Several smaller independent British airline companies unsuccessfully challenged the BA/BCal merger on the grounds that the new company would dominate both London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports, forcing them to relocate to the less accessible and underdeveloped field at Stansted.

With its dominance of the home market secure for the time being, British Airways aggressively expanded in Europe, North America, and the Pacific Rim over the next several years, aiming to become a global airline. Its first foray into the lucrative U.S. market came in 1988 when it formed a marketing alliance with United Airlines designed to feed customers from one carrier to the other and vice versa. This partnership set the pattern for British Airway’s expansion—it would not be based on forming new airlines outside England or acquiring them, but rather through strategic alliances. Nevertheless, this first partnership collapsed a little more than two years later when United became a direct competitor to British Airways once it had gained access to Heathrow in 1991, along with American Airlines. The two strongest airlines in the United States had purchased the Heathrow rights from the floundering Pan Am and TWA, immediately increasing competition in British Airways’ home market.

While the alliance with United was still operating, British Airways suffered losses in Europe in 1990 and 1991 because of the Gulf crisis in the Mideast. Shortly after, in July 1991, it entered into an alliance with Aeroflot in Russia to create a new airline called Air Russia. After several false starts over the next few years, this venture never got off the ground. Additional proposed alliances failed in 1992 for other reasons. Officials from British Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines held extensive discussions about a merger in 1991 and 1992, but talks broke down over the valuation of the two firms. Later in 1992, British Airways attempted to purchase 44 percent of USAir Inc. for $750 million. American, United, and Delta Air Lines (the U.S. “Big Three”) vigorously lobbied against the deal and demanded enhanced access to the British market if the deal was to be approved by the U.S. government. In December the purchase was blocked.

That same month the first in a string of alliances was struck when the airline paid $450 million for 25 percent of Qantas, the Australia-based international airline. In 1993, British Airways gained a 49.9 percent stake in the leading French independent carrier TAT European Airlines, then launched a start-up in Germany called Deutsche BA with 49 percent ownership. Through these alliances, British Airways had enhanced its position in the Pacific Rim and Europe. It now refocused its attention across the Atlantic where it restructured its offer for a piece of USAir into a $400 million purchase of 25 percent of the company. This alliance received U.S. government approval. The government also approved a code-sharing arrangement that enabled the partners to offer their customers a seamless operation when they use both airlines to reach their destination.

While all this dealmaking was going on abroad, British Airways faced an embarrassing and potentially costly fight at home with Richard Branson’s upstart Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Since starting operations in the early 1980s, Virgin had made some inroads against British Airways primarily by focusing on customer service, something “Bloody Awful” BA had neglected for years. Branson filed suit against British Airways in 1991 alleging that British Airways had smeared Branson and his airline and conducted “dirty tricks” such as spreading rumors about Virgin’s insolvency. In 1993 the suit was settled out of court with British Airways offering a public apology and paying £500,000 to Branson and £110,000 to Virgin. The case also led to the resignation of Lord King. Second-in-command Colin Marshall took over as chairman. Further litigation followed between the two rivals, most seriously a $1 billion antitrust suit brought by Virgin in the United States. Various suits damaged British Airways’ reputation and led to comments such as the following from the Economist: “BA now looks... like an anxious, overbearing giant trying to squash a feisty little rival.”

With its Virgin difficulties continuing, British Airways’ overseas partners suffered huge losses: in 1993 Qantas lost $271 million, while in 1994 TAT lost $60 million and USAir lost $350 million. The situation at USAir was so grim that British Airways declared that they would hold back an additional $450 million investment in the firm until the carrier was in the black. In May 1995 British Airways was forced to take a $200 million charge to write down the value of its USAir investment.

Even though British Airways was struggling with its alliance strategy, the real test of its global strategy lay ahead with the long-awaited 1997 deregulation of the European airline industry. It approached that date as one of the most profitable airlines in the world, despite the faltering alliances, and had been in the black every year since privatization.

Principal Subsidiaries

British Airways Capital Ltd. (89%); British Airways Finance BV; British Airways Holidays Ltd.; Caledonian Airways Ltd.; Qantas Airways Ltd. (25%, Australia); TAT European Airlines S.A. (49.9%, France); Deutsche BA L.m.b.H. (49%, Germany); Air Russia (31%); Bedford Associated, Inc. (U.S.); British Airways (U.S.); Galileo International Partnership (14.6%, U.S.); USAir Group, Inc. (24.6%, U.S.).

British Airways Plc

views updated May 11 2018

British Airways Plc

founded: 1923

Contact Information:

headquarters: waterside hba3, po box 365
harmondsworth, ub7 ogb great britain phone: +44-20-8562-4444 fax: +44-20-8759-4314 toll free: (800)545-7644 email: bafeedback@agency.com url: http://www.britishairways.com

OVERVIEW

British Airways Plc (BA), based at Heathrow Airport in London, is the world's largest international air carrier. BA carries approximately 36 million passengers each year with a global network spanning more than 250 destinations and 97 countries. The company was originally a government-run operation until 1987 when BA completed its initial public offering. After going public, BA posted impressive numbers, with stock prices top-ping $100 a share on the New York Stock Exchange during 1997 and 1998 before falling to $35.00 in 2002. Economic recession, combined with other uncontrollable factors such as an increase in fuel prices, the country's hand-and-foot disease crisis, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have disrupted the airline's bottom line numbers. Burdened by a large debt load, BA has been looking to cut costs, improve customer services, and streamline operations to remain one of the world's leading airline service providers.

COMPANY FINANCES

For the year ending March 31, 1997, British Airways posted a profit before taxes of 640 million on revenues of £8.36 billion. Over the next three years, profits slid downward, and for the year ending March 31, 2000, the airline showed a profit before taxes of only £5 million, resulting in a net loss of £21 million, on revenues of £8.94 billion. The following year the company rebounded to post a profit before taxes of £150 million on £9.28 billion in sales. However, BA was struck with economic problems again for the year ending March 31, 2002, with income before taxes falling to reflect a loss of £200 million.

The majority of British Airway's revenues come from passenger ticketing. In 2001 of the £9.28 billion total sales, £7.8 billion was a result of passenger ticket sales. Cargo and mail services generated £579 million, and other services, including aircraft maintenance services and special holiday packages, accounted for £846 million.

ANALYSTS' OPINIONS

Analysts have expressed concern regarding British Airways' long-term success and tend to favor the airline's European peers Lufthansa, Air France, and KLM as better investments. BA has good reasons for its recent financial woes. The foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain first stymied the economy, followed by a general slowdown in the global economy, and the airline's problems climaxed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. However, BA is not alone; the International Air Transport Association estimated that the airline industry lost approximately $17 billion last year. Although analysts can forgive BA short-term misfortunes, they show concern over the airline's large debt, its inefficient hub at Heathrow, continuing losses in its short haul network, and increasingly strong competition from discount, no-frills airlines. Given the difficult market, analysts are skeptical that BA will be set for any quick or remarkable recoveries in the near future.

HISTORY

In 1923, in response to stiff competition from foreign airlines that had forced all British-owned airline operations to suspend service, the British Parliament commissioned the Civil Air Transport Subsidies Committee to create a single British air carrier company from all existing operations. As a result, on March 31, 1924, Daimler Airway, British Marine Air Navigation, Instone Air Line, and Handley Page joined together to become Imperial Air Transport. As the airline industry grew, Imperial worked to connect the many points of the British Empire, with most of its revenues being generated by mail delivery services. Destinations included Calcutta, Cairo, Singapore, Brisbane, and Cape Town. By 1936 nearly all territories under British control were linked by Imperial flights.

Although Imperial was the leader in overseas air service, it was facing increasing competition from an aggressive new company, BA, which had been established in 1935 by the merger of three smaller airlines. Imperial decided the best strategy for survival in the European market was cooperation. Accordingly, in November 1937 Parliament was presented with a proposal to nationalize and merge Imperial and BA. The merger was completed on November 24, 1939, with the two companies reorganized as the British Overseas Airways Corp. (BOAC).

FAST FACTS: About British Airways Plc

Ownership: British Airways is a publicly owned corporation that trades on multiple exchanges around the world, including the London, Munich, XETRA, OTC, and New York Stock Exchanges.

Ticker Symbol: BAB

Officers: Lord Marshall, 67, Chmn; Rod Eddington, 51, CEO; Derek Stevens, 62, CFO

Employees: 62,175

Principal Subsidiary Companies: British Airways' wholly owned subsidiaries include, most importantly, British Airways Ltd., as well as CityFlyer Express Ltd., British Airways Holidays Ltd., British Airways Cargo, and Deutsche BA Luftfahrtgesellschaft GmbH. The company also holds partial equity in numerous ventures including The London Eye Company Ltd., Concorde International Travel Pty Ltd., and Qantas Airways Ltd.

Chief Competitors: British Airways' wholly owned subsidiaries include, most importantly, British Airways Ltd., as well as CityFlyer Express Ltd., British Airways Holidays Ltd., British Airways Cargo, and Deutsche BA Luftfahrtgesellschaft GmbH. The company also holds partial equity in numerous ventures including The London Eye Company Ltd., Concorde International Travel Pty Ltd., and Qantas Airways Ltd.

During World War II, the government took control of all British airlines. After the war ended, BOAC handed over all European destinations were assigned to British European Airways. Likewise all South American destinations were assigned to British South American Airways, a newly formed state-owned company; however, a series of equipment failures prompted BOAC to resume control of the South American network in 1949. During the remainder of the 1940s, BOAC spent large amounts of capital to upgrade its fleet, adding newer, faster airplanes. Purchases included Lockheed Constellations, Boeing 377 Stratocruisers, and Canadair Argonauts, as well as Handley Page Hermes and de Havilland's DH Comet 1, the world's first jetliner.

Despite increased passenger numbers, the rapid expansion of the company's fleet pushed its debt to £32 million. In January 1954 a Comet airliner crashed into the Mediterranean, followed by a second Comet crash just days after the investigation closed on the first accident. As a result, the Comet was declared unfit to fly and taken out of BOAC's schedule. With the Comet, the airliner's longest-range aircraft, out of commission, BOAC was forced to suspend all travel routes to South America. Eventually the mechanical problem with the Comet was discovered and resolved. Nonetheless, when the aircraft was reintroduced in 1958 as the DH Comet 4, its time had passed, and BOAC sold the fleet along with an outdated fleet of prop-engine DC-7s for a loss of £51 million.

BOAC's financial outlook did not improve in the 1960s. Although cargo tonnage had increased steadily, there was a sharp unexplained decline in passenger purchases. Like many companies within the airline industry, BOAC took a loss for 1961, increasing the company's debt to £64 million. The government stepped in to protect BOAC from bankruptcy and ordered a drastic reorganization of the BOAC. As a result, money-losing services were scraped, equipment purchases were reconfigured, and debt payments were rescheduled. The restructuring was successful, and BOAC posted record profits from 1966 to 1972, at which time it had completely repaid its debt to the government. In 1974 BOAC underwent further restructuring by merging with British European Airways to create BA. The financial recovery experienced during the 1970s was topped off with the addition of the first supersonic Concorde, which flew at speeds up to 1,350 miles per hour, cutting the normal 7-hour London-New York flight in half.

During the early 1980s, BA began to prepare to become a privately owned company. A concerted push was made to improve customer service, for which the airline had a notoriously poor reputation. Once again cost-cutting measures were employed, and between 1980 and 1983 the workforce was reduced from 60,000 to 38,000. Over fifty executives were terminated, and a professional marketing group was commissioned to give the company's public image a makeover. Despite opposition from competitors, BA became a limited public company in 1985, with the government retaining all control of the stock. The initial public offering completed in 1987 resulted in 720.2 million shares being sold for £1 billion. In the same year, BA acquired British Caledonian, known as Bcal, one of its major competitors. With the addition of the Bcal fleet and routes, BA became one of the largest airliners in the world.

During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, British Airways attempted with limited success to expand its international operations. In 1988 the company formed an alliance with United Airlines to shuffle customers between the two airlines. However, when United purchased rights three years later to access London's Heathrow from struggling Pan Am and TWA, the partnership ended and United became BA' direct competitor. In 1991 the airline entered into an agreement with Aeroflot, a Russian company, to develop a new airline called Air Russia, but the venture never came to fruition. The next year BA looked to the large U.S. markets. Its attempt to purchase 44 percent of USAir was blocked by the U.S. government after the major U.S. carriers lobbied strongly against the deal.

CHRONOLOGY: Key Dates for British Airways

1923:: British Parliament orders the formation of a single British international air carrier; Imperial Air Transport is founded the next year
1935:: Start-up carrier BA offers increasing competition to Imperial
1939:: BA is nationalized and merged with Imperial as British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC)
1951:: BOAC's debt reaches £32 million due to recapitalization expenses
1961:: Debt climbs to £64 million, caused by a decline in passengers; government finances company to prevent bankruptcy
1974:: Out of debt and financially stable, company is reorganized and renamed BA (BA)
1983:: More than 50 BA executives fired in a management shake-up
1987:: BA becomes a publicly owned company, selling 720 million stock shares for £1 billion
1997:: Reports fiscal year profit before taxes of £640 million
2000:: BA considers merging with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines but decides to pull out of negotiations
2001:: Reports a fiscal year profit before taxes of £5 million

British Airways did manage to purchase 49.9 percent of TAT European Airlines, a leading French airline, and 25 percent of Qantas, Australia-based airline. With these deals complete, BA placed on the table a revised offer for a portion of USAir, and this time received governmental approval. These acquisitions strengthened BA global presence, but negatively affected the organization's financial standing. In 1993 Qantas posted a lost of $271 million, and in 1994 TAT and USAir lost $60 million and $350 million, respectively. Despite the poor performance of its alliances, BA continued to post positive numbers. The late 1990s brought increased competition, establishing a tougher business environment for BA, and in 1997 the company sold off its interest in USAir. During 2000 the company considered merging with KLM Airlines, but backed out before the deal was completed.

STRATEGY

In 2002 BA conducted a Future Size and Shape review in order to determine the best solutions to the challenges facing the airline. The goal will be to create a simpler, leaner airline that is more focused on its core profitable routes. To quickly reduce overhead, the airline announced that it would cut 13,000 jobs by 2004. In another move to cut costs, BA has drastically reduced its plans for its terminal at Gatwick by abandoning plans to turn Gatwick into a second major hub for the airline. Instead, longhaul operations are scheduled for reduction from 43 to 25 by suspending unprofitable routes and moving others key routes to Heathrow. Gatwick will remain important to BA' shorthaul business. With more traffic moved to Heathrow, the airline will push the British government for improvements in the infrastructure of the airline industry so that its already inadequate terminal situation may in the future be alleviated.

In an attempt to reclaim the business of leisure travelers who were buying tickets from the no-frills airlines, on April 5, 2002, British Airways announced newly restructured fare plans that included domestic return fares starting as low as £69 and did away with the Saturday night stay restrictions. The airline also hopes to entice business and leisure travelers by providing quality products and services that are unmatched by its competitors. New offerings provided under the label of Air Travel For the 21st Century include refurbished First Class, the Club World flat bed, the improved Club Europe and World Traveller services, and the introduction of a new class, World Traveller Plus. Terminal facilities and lounges have also been upgraded and modernized to provide comfort and convenience to British Airway customers. To move to the forefront of technology, the airline has begun to offer innovative customer service options such as flight information and passenger check-up via mobile Internet. Discounts are offered to customers who book their flights at BA's Web site.

INFLUENCES

As a global company BA is continually affected—sometimes positively, sometimes negatively—by the world economy. Such uncontrollable variables as fuel prices and the strength or weakness of regional economies directly impact the profitability of the airline. Just as the airline was looking toward a recovery of the British economy after the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which had resulted in a reduction in both passenger and cargo revenue, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, weakened the global economy, sending the entire airline industry into a downward spin.

To encourage people to return to flying and to compete with the growing success of discount airlines, BA cut prices on numerous flights. However, this means that even if passenger numbers grow, as is expected to eventually occur, BA will be making less profit per passenger, thus requiring even greater increases in filled seats to make ends meet. Thus, BA is also continuing to look for ways to streamline operations and lower overhead.

CURRENT TRENDS

With a keen eye on cost reduction, BA announced the results of an in-house study "Future Size and Shape" in February 2001. The plan calls for the elimination of unprofitable segments of business operations by reducing capacity, eliminating unnecessary complexity, and reduction in the workforce, all of which is to be accomplished without affecting the quality of customer service.

To better position itself in the marketplace, BA has made a number of divestitures and acquisitions. The airline sold off its French subsidiary Air Liberté and its interest in Hogg Robinson. BA also sold GO, a low-fare regional airline. In its place, BA acquired British Regional Airlines Group, which it merged with its wholly owned regionally based Brymon Airways. CityFlyer Express was purchased and integrated into the mainline operations at BA's Gatwick terminal.

PRODUCTS

As of March 2002, BA had 360 aircraft in its fleet, including 7 Concordes (currently out of service for safety modifications), 56 Boeing 747-400s, 45 Boeing 777s, 44 Turbo Props, 33 Airbus A19s, and 21 Boeing 737-400s. This reflects an increase of 22 aircraft from the previous year, which is primarily due to the acquisition of British Regional Air Lines with 12 Jetstream 41, 13 British Aerospace ATP, 21 Embraer RJ145 and 5 British Aerospace 146 in service at year end. Aircraft removed from BA's service include 13 Boeing 737-300, which resulted from the sale of GO. Other changes are the consequence of regular operational procedures that introduces new aircraft and grounds outdated aircraft.

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP

BA's Sustainable Business Unit provides the airline with input on environmental and social concerns as well as economic impact of business decisions. The Sustain Business Unit creates community and environmental policy through provision of support and advice, as well as monitoring, measuring, and reporting on the airline's performance in the areas of social and environmental responsibility.

As a corporation BA sponsors numerous ongoing charities as well as responding to special emergency needs. The company's Change of Good fundraising efforts have raised more than £12.5 million to help UNICEF. For the year ending March 31, 2001, BA provided £782,000 in direct funding to charities and community projects. However, accounting for in-kind goods and services donations, that total jumps to £6.4 million. BA focuses specific efforts in the areas of youth development, heritage and tourism, and the environment. Specific environmental concerns include noise, fuel efficiency and emissions, waste, water use, climate change, and congestion in the air.

GLOBAL PRESENCE

Of total ticket sales, business conducted within Great Britain accounted for £4.63 billion in revenues; continental Europe, £1.42 billion; the Americas, £1.75 billion; Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, £783 million; and the Far East and Australasia, £696 million. Strongest growth was seen in Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, which showed an increase of revenues by area of destination of nearly 7 percent.

Forming alliance has also been a trend in BA's global strategy. The one world alliance, founded in February of 1999 with BA as one of its founding members, is an international consortium of eight full members, including airline powerhouse American Airlines, and 23 affiliate member airlines. The goal of one world is to coordinate routes, scheduling, and ticketing to provide advantages to all airlines that are involved in the consortium. Benefits include reciprocal reward and recognition programs, common lounge access, smoother transfers, and increased customer support. BA has also worked to establish a unique relationship with American Airlines outside the realm of one world, but the future of the two superpower airline's interact has yet to be played out.

FROM "BLOODY AWFUL" TO "BEST AROUND"

In a major effort to overhaul its reputation for high-end ticket prices and low-end customer services and comforts, British Airways invested £600 million to upgrade and improve its product offerings. After conducting an extensive market research project to find out what passengers wanted from an airline, BA instituted numerous innovative changes in its products that were developed to maximize comfort and design. The most cutting-edge addition was the "lounge in the sky," which offers business class travelers a completely flat bed for resting during long flights. With the addition of the world traveler plus cabin, which provides more space, leg room, facilities, and double carry-on baggage allowance, BA became the first airline to offer four distinct cabins: first class, club world, world traveler, and world traveler plus. As a result of its investment in customer satisfaction and service, BA can proudly claim to have shed its old acronym's side-meaning of "bloody awful" to boast that it offers the "best around."

EMPLOYMENT

British Airways offers career opportunities in the areas of customer contact (terminal and in air), commercial sales and marketing, e-business and information technology, technical and operations, and corporate positions such as public relations, finance, legal, and human resources. Training resources, such as computer-based interactive learning centers, library facilities, reference materials, audio- and video-based learning, and numerous leadership and teambuilding programs are used for career enhancement. BA looks for candidates who possess the skills required for the position as well as initiative and good communication and teambuilding skills. For senior positions, proven leadership is an important factor also.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Bibliography

"ba cuts staffing costs during turbulent times." personnel today, 16 april 2002.

"ba vows to regain lost sales." travel trade gazette uk & ireland, 22 april 2002.

"british airways introduces new products." africa news service, 18 april 2002.

"british airways offers new deals to compete with low-cost airlines." airline industry information, 4 april 2002.

"british airways to cancel 12 routes and cut staff." airline industry information, 25 april 2002.

"british airways to cut 5,800 more jobs." air transport world, march 2002.

burke, w. warner. "plane talk about change: how lord colin marshall transformed british airways into a customer-service powerhouse." in business climate shifts: profiles of change makers. boston: butterworth heinemann, 2000.

"cowen on...british airways." campaign, 18 january 2002.

"taking." airline business, 1 may 2002.

"uk company: british airways shrinking to grow." financial times, 20 may 2002.

vowler, julia. "can ba slash £45 million from its it budget and keep on flying?" computer weekly, 14 march 2002.

For an annual report:

on the internet at: http://www.britishairways.com

For additional industry research:

investigate companies by their standard industrial classification codes, also known as sics. british airways plc's primary sics are:

4512 air transportation scheduled

4513 air courier services

4522 air transportation nonscheduled

4581 airports fields & terminal services

4731 arrangement transport freight & cargo

also investigate companies by their north american industry classification system codes, also known as naics codes. british airways plc's primary naics code is:

481110 scheduled air transportation

Company Profiles for Students

British Airways PLC

British Airways PLC

Early History: Linking the British Empire

World War II and Nationalization

Fleet Strategies: From the Comet to the Concorde

Company Perspectives:

Key Dates:

Road to Privatization in the 1980s

Poised for International Growth: Acquisitions and Alliances

On the Brink: Preparing for Industry Consolidation and a Global Future

Principal Subsidiaries

Principal Competitors

Further Reading

British Airways Plc

British Airways Plc

Principal Subsidiaries

Further Reading

British Airways PLC

British Airways PLC

Principal Subsidiaries

Further Reading

British Airways Plc

British Airways Plc

Contact Information:

OVERVIEW

COMPANY FINANCES

ANALYSTS' OPINIONS

HISTORY

FAST FACTS: About British Airways Plc

CHRONOLOGY: Key Dates for British Airways

STRATEGY

INFLUENCES

CURRENT TRENDS

PRODUCTS

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP

GLOBAL PRESENCE

FROM "BLOODY AWFUL" TO "BEST AROUND"

EMPLOYMENT

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Bibliography

For an annual report:

For additional industry research:

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British Airways PLC

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