A thoroughly enjoyable morning, and it was great to put a few faces to FT handles. For those I didn't meet, I shall repeat what I said earlier today - "I don't do buses"
AC spoke very well, and came across as a very intelligent chap with an excellent sense of humour. He knows where the problems are within the airline, and did his best to address the crowd - he gave 30mins for a Q&A after his presentation which was great.
I should also add that he stayed around afterwards to address a queue of around 10 people. I think he earned the respect of many doubters today, and while some may not agree with him, I personally left with the impression that he knows what needs to be done.
Amongst some of what he said:
1. The First Wing has proven very successful, and will be rolled out to T3 and JFK.
2. The 747s will remain in the fleet until around 2024, hence the major refurbishment program.
WiFi has proven to be so useful, "that a few days ago, 112 Netflix accounts where running concurrently at one point across the WiFi enabled fleet".
3. 5-10 A350-1000s will be coming into the fleet in 2019. These will be fitted with the new CW seat.
The current delays, are due to the seat manufacturing process, but "nobody will ever see a meal thrust across them" ; a reference to the way CW window passengers are currently served.
AC admitted that the current 2-4-2 layout is no longer competitive, going so far to say that it was ground-breaking when it was shown off 23 years ago..."but the bad news is that we still have it".
4. BA is committed to hiring 3,500-4,500 new staff per annum.
5. The Concorde Team will liaise with Concorde Cardholders to ensure you always have the same point of contact. This sounded like a move away from the GGL team that we currently call.
6. BA are wholly committed to First Class. It will remain, but fewer seats will be fitted to new aircraft.
The A350-1000 will feature a modified version of the 789 F seat, which AC accepted had a few small niggles (Phase 1).
A new F concept, will be worked on to see what F really means to people. This is a medium-long term project (Phase 2), and we should not expect a new F seat, until all aircraft are fitted with the new CW seat.
While BA would like to do more on the ground for F passengers, like "services offered in Doha and Dubai", they are "constrained and limited by what HAL allow".
7. Additional Jaguars, there are 6 at present, are to be ordered for those on tight connections.
8. FT got a mention, along with the phrase "many feel that BA F is comparable to QR J"...but it wasn't from me! AC gave a pretty frank answer, linked to finances, but also agreed that BA needed to do more to remain Premium.
9. The Pilot Assistance Network is a BA initiative to offer mental support for BA staff. I found this really interesting, and massive kudos to BA for launching such an initiative.
M