Originally Posted by
Ber2dca
I'm someone with an eye on the 'posh side' of the airline and it's sub-par and well below most of its competitors on my list. I don't live in London and BA is one of several airlines I could use.
Even as someone who acknowledges that the market has become very segmented and that purely price-driven demand is a reality in a big part of that market, I would simply say that AC is having a laugh if he talks about 10 out of 10. That's a guy who got his job by smooth talking people doing the same to a journo.
You don't get to be 10 out of 10 if your desire to innovate and improve is limited solely to improving margins and innovating new ways of creating revenue. The problem with execs like this is that they want to be 10 out of 10 for stock market analysts/business section editors and that's where they think their responsibility for the brand ends.
If you search this forum pre-2008 and the Ready for 5 campaign, you will find much discussion of Willy Walsh's drive for 10% Gross Profit from the business. Many said that would be the end.
15 years later we have a thriving successful BA.
No, it is not perfect and of course it could do better. What it definitely is doing is keeping itself very much alive at the time when many said it would be dead due the disadvantage that its pensions deficit brought.
Leadership is about taking tough decisions and sticking to them. In this case you have a manager with a clear vision of a two-tiered product range - a high quality premium offer with a competitive quality economy offer.
Waitrose didn't get it right on day one with "Essentials", or the free offers with their "My Waitrose" card. Both have evolved. They have also since launched the Waitrose One range to epitomise their premium quality own-brand items.
You can see BA in the same context. Get the service right and you are on to a winner.