When did the demise of BA start?
 

We all know the hard product is behind the ME3 and others but between data leaks, IT system failures and flight cancellations/delays handled badly with terrible press surely heads must roll in senior management? When did the rot set in? It seems to be one bad news day after another with no real management change - perhaps brexit will put BA out of its misery once and for all and open the doors for Qatar to buy them out...

I am not a grammarian, but I wonder whether this is a classic example of what is properly described as "begging the question".

"Demise" implies that they don't exist any more. If this has happened I must have missed it. :)

You call it rot, but we could also call it responding to changing market conditions and this has probably been going on since the start. I do think that some of it is being handled badly, and even if the overall strategy is right BA does have a systemic problem on being execute these plans effectively. But nonetheless, talk of demise is premature.

Unlikely. BA are increasing revenue and profit YoY for some time. I'll dig out the charts if I have a moment.

Meanwhile Qatar (and Emirates for that matter) are heavily state subsidised. BA seems to be in good shape from the point of view of the financials and passenger numbers, which is what counts. Obviously, if you don't like BA, there are alternatives, but plenty of passengers are happy with the service.

Qatar, yes absolutely, though they are now going to supposedly publish financials. Emirates have always published full financials, and are not that heavily subsidised, good thing BA never gets subsidies

EY is probably going to be gone or massively restructured quite soon, yes. Qatar will continue to exist with heavy state support as long as they have oil revenue. EK is quite stable and self sufficient, and an extremely well-run and professional operation. Where BA operates 30 year old aircraft and has a fleet with dozens of different aircraft types, FAs on all kinda of different contracts (MF vs WW?) and clearly struggling to maintain the airworthiness of their aircraft, I don't see how you could think BA would survive EK.

Both have similarly sized fleets, yet EK has just three types of aircraft, A380-800, B777-300-ER and B777-200LR (10 of the latter, ~150 of the 77W and ~105 of the A380). Thus EK is an arguably much larger airline operating a fleet with over 110,000 seats, in a much more efficient route network, better employee contracts and less legacy rot. And they serve real French champagne and every single business class seat in their fleet is lie-flat, even on 40-minute flights... Try CE to IST on BA...lol

Oh and then don't forgot this peach of an example of what a deplorable airline BA is... https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ease-help.html

I'm not sure what this thread is trying to contribute? BA is very profitable. For all it's faults (and I'm the first to tell you there are some) it's not the demonised basket case that many suggest it is. Look at the numbers... or indeed the facts. And not those alternative ones either. Passenger numbers up, profits up. Gatwick, once a financial basket case, has been turned around. Indeed, the new catering has been gathering generally positive comments on here (who would have thought?!) and we'll be seeing more soft product and hard product improvements next year. I suspect that much of this vitriol is one based upon perception.

Brexit putting BA "out of it's misery" so that QR can come in a buy it? Give me a break. Next you'll be calling Club World a premium economy product.

One word, five letters. Begins with "T".

BA have responded to market forces thrown at them from the LCC competition. - change to survive or go under

Ask that question to EK's pilots and I am sure they will not agree. There are many reasons why EK have a pilot shortage.

This is very real and the management isn't great at EK. The perception of BA is at an all time low and I don't understand how there hasn't been a senior management change in a while...

Not quite... They have angled seats without all aisle access on the 777s. That's one thing BA does do better than most, consistency in the hard product.

Good thing the first A380s will be retiring soon and that they've got 40 787s on order then