View Poll Results: Should Alex Cruz (BA's Chief Executive and Chairman) step down or be replaced?
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Should Alex Cruz step down or be replaced? [FT poll]
May 30, 2017, 6:28 am
#226
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: London
Posts: 489
Yes this will all take some time. Slowly, but surely, more and more people are getting frustrated with BA and are looking elsewhere.
I think BA will only worry if they lose their BA before anyone else customers, and so far they have not. The Die-Hard BA fans still fly them. At that point the company will have to really try hard to get their customers back.
Current status is BA has become so arrogant with their brand that AC and WW still think no matter what happens, passenger numbers will continue to rise. I await the full year 2017 figures of BA with great interest, although it will be a year before we see them!
I think BA will only worry if they lose their BA before anyone else customers, and so far they have not. The Die-Hard BA fans still fly them. At that point the company will have to really try hard to get their customers back.
Current status is BA has become so arrogant with their brand that AC and WW still think no matter what happens, passenger numbers will continue to rise. I await the full year 2017 figures of BA with great interest, although it will be a year before we see them!
Well as of April, BA's RPKs were up 3.2% with ASKs up 2.1%, so seat factors are increasing (obviously we don't know the yield picture)
May 30, 2017, 7:10 am
#227
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver, IHG & Accor Plat...
Posts: 734
Apologies if mentioned upthread, as I have been tracking multiple forums on this issue and its maxing out my attention span!
AC says the issue is a power surge on Saturday. Elsewhere, on an IT forum , a poster cast doubt on this, saying that for a flight on Friday they could not MMB on Thursday and that their boarding passes "arrived 8 hours late" ( not sure what they mean by that, I assume they are referring to an email containing their BP's). Add to that hot weather mid week , could it cause a shift in power grid issues nationally....is it feasible that the issues were already in play and that saturdays power surge was a symptom not a cause? Has anyone else experienced significant MMB / online checkin issues in the days leading up to the crash? If true...all this could prove telling on Senor Cruz's position going forward....
AC says the issue is a power surge on Saturday. Elsewhere, on an IT forum , a poster cast doubt on this, saying that for a flight on Friday they could not MMB on Thursday and that their boarding passes "arrived 8 hours late" ( not sure what they mean by that, I assume they are referring to an email containing their BP's). Add to that hot weather mid week , could it cause a shift in power grid issues nationally....is it feasible that the issues were already in play and that saturdays power surge was a symptom not a cause? Has anyone else experienced significant MMB / online checkin issues in the days leading up to the crash? If true...all this could prove telling on Senor Cruz's position going forward....
Last edited by LostAntipod; May 30, 2017 at 7:10 am Reason: Spelling
May 30, 2017, 7:10 am
#228
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Location: London
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May 30, 2017, 7:17 am
#230
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17,007
Add to that hot weather mid week , could it cause a shift in power grid issues nationally....is it feasible that the issues were already in play and that saturdays power surge was a symptom not a cause? Has anyone else experienced significant MMB / online checkin issues in the days leading up to the crash? If true...all this could prove telling on Senor Cruz's position going forward....
Agreed.
May 30, 2017, 7:20 am
#231
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May 30, 2017, 7:39 am
#232
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 9,916
It's not about the cost of a cup of tea and a sandwich and what it would cost to grow your own potatoes to make your own crisps instead of buying them. Those people are lost to BA already.
Many overpriced brands are based on 90% intangible "it just seems nicer and more fashionable" and 10% "concretely this is actually better made". But if you take away that 10%, the 90% seems to go away quite quickly. And then BA really will have to compete on price.
Many overpriced brands are based on 90% intangible "it just seems nicer and more fashionable" and 10% "concretely this is actually better made". But if you take away that 10%, the 90% seems to go away quite quickly. And then BA really will have to compete on price.
May 30, 2017, 8:45 am
#234
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Dundee
Programs: BA Plastic. HH Diamond. Speedwell Bar Lifetime Platinum.
Posts: 1,425
Until BA lose the overheads the newer LCCs don't have, and that's not going to change overnight.
A flying pension fund ISTR BA was called. Cutting a cup of tea is nothing compared with those kind of liabilities.
May 30, 2017, 8:46 am
#235
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 8,771
There could well have been an internal power surge and I'm not sure SSE would register that (but I know nowt about such things).
May 30, 2017, 8:55 am
#236
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May 30, 2017, 9:09 am
#237
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Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 15,347
Is it really that difficult for BA to figure out??!! Look at the history of the big US airlines after deregulation. Almost EXACTLY every 8 years since Deregulation there has been a LCC, or bare bones type shift. People Express and New York Air anyone? Remember Kiwi Air? How about different lives of National and Frontier?! Air Tran? Later on Jet Blue? Virgin America? Remember the majors answers with such me too products such as TED and SONG?
The only two minnows that grew to mean anything have been Southwest and to a lesser extent Alaska, both of which basically started and strengthened their beach heads in areas that the majors did not worry about (namely the Southwest and Alaska/Pacific Northwest.
So do you know what happens after they come in with their new planes and lean products? The aircraft age, the employees become more expensive and their fares go up. Then what happens? They start to bring back the perks..............no more one cabin service, food that was cut comes back, at least on routes that mean something.
It seems to me that BA has ALWAYS been 5-15 years behind the times. Part of this is/was due to it looking at its neighboring competitors, rather than global, but part of it has always been an inherent sense of superiority, even when they eventually have to do an about face when they are failing.
While the IAG strategy of bulking up with Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling may be showing short term results, these was a "me too" strategy to combat LH and AF who gobbled up other inefficient European airlines, with teh advantage that in the case of Iberia and Aer Lingus they were able to come in after several rounds of near bankruptcy and bail-outs (was IB 2 or 4 bail outs, I cannot remember). When BA had real legitimate opportunities to go into the LCC space, and expand in Europe previously they failed SPECTACULARLY, and ended up creating much of the backbone of their European LCC competitors, DBA given to Air Berlin, Go to Easyjet..let's not even go into other disasters such as TAT.
The only two minnows that grew to mean anything have been Southwest and to a lesser extent Alaska, both of which basically started and strengthened their beach heads in areas that the majors did not worry about (namely the Southwest and Alaska/Pacific Northwest.
So do you know what happens after they come in with their new planes and lean products? The aircraft age, the employees become more expensive and their fares go up. Then what happens? They start to bring back the perks..............no more one cabin service, food that was cut comes back, at least on routes that mean something.
It seems to me that BA has ALWAYS been 5-15 years behind the times. Part of this is/was due to it looking at its neighboring competitors, rather than global, but part of it has always been an inherent sense of superiority, even when they eventually have to do an about face when they are failing.
While the IAG strategy of bulking up with Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling may be showing short term results, these was a "me too" strategy to combat LH and AF who gobbled up other inefficient European airlines, with teh advantage that in the case of Iberia and Aer Lingus they were able to come in after several rounds of near bankruptcy and bail-outs (was IB 2 or 4 bail outs, I cannot remember). When BA had real legitimate opportunities to go into the LCC space, and expand in Europe previously they failed SPECTACULARLY, and ended up creating much of the backbone of their European LCC competitors, DBA given to Air Berlin, Go to Easyjet..let's not even go into other disasters such as TAT.
May 30, 2017, 9:12 am
#238
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 160
Wonder whether there is a hidden agenda from the BBC giving the boss of a British airline subtitles in this interview...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40088386
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40088386
May 30, 2017, 9:16 am
#239
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Abu Dhabi
Programs: BA Gold/OWE
Posts: 531
A rather uncomplimentary (and possibly syndicated) piece from Ivan Fallon in our local rag: http://www.thenational.ae/business/a...-cutting-costs
The unfortunate Mr Cruz has the demeanour of a bandit about to rob the payroll, and I don’t expect we’ll be seeing very much more of him. He may be great at cutting costs, but he is clearly not very good with people. At a recent BA investors’ day, the BA chief, according to an analyst who was there, chose to "hide behind the food buffet talking to an Airbus representative". This, he went on, "failed to make a positive impression with investors".
May 30, 2017, 9:18 am
#240
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Dundee
Programs: BA Plastic. HH Diamond. Speedwell Bar Lifetime Platinum.
Posts: 1,425
Wonder whether there is a hidden agenda from the BBC giving the boss of a British airline subtitles in this interview...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40088386
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40088386