Originally Posted by
orbitmic
Ah, you are still doing the "guarantee" thing I see!
Incidentally, that is actually a rather moot point: if the goal was to fill plane, everyone could do that: some airlines and services have gone bankrupt with loads near 100%. The difficulty relates to yields rather than loads.
If, as I presume you suggest, you can guarantee that BA will be able to continue filling planes with similar or higher yields as now and reduce costs, then it's great for them. They have nothing to worry about, can safely ignore the passengers who claim to be disgruntled, and in fact press ahead with faster and more radical continued product deterioration in all classes of service. The only mystery questions become why they have not done it earlier (frankly, if BA never had anything to gain from offering free drinks and food in the first place, I really do wonder why on earth they did for so long) and why other European legacy carriers have not done it either. They must have all had pretty wasteful managers.
My take on this might be that Alex Cruz has to come in and justify his role as a CEO, who historically may have or has delivered cost saving techniques in his management style for other businesses, therefore he can clearly demonstrate the impact he has as a CEO and justify his pay packet etc.
If he came in and did very little then he probably wouldn't last long or if he came in and spent money on improving the product, as we all wish, Walsh would not take to well to this in a harsh airline economic climate and again Cruz would be gone.
Especially when Emirates who've been profitable for 20+ years now (according to their CEO in a Skift interview) introduce seat charges. It's clear the industry has struggled with all the financial, political and social unrest throughout the world including terrorism in the last few years. God only knows what will happen in the US airline market if Trump trumps and he starts building immigration walls!! The best walls, he says, of course!!