fluffymitten

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...-much-trouble/

Reads like a BA staff member, of 30 years' standing, is at the end of their tether and giving their view as to why Heathrow is in a lot of trouble due to poor treatment of HAL, BA and UKBF staff.

Not sure if I can copy / paste the content due to copyright but happy to do so if it's paywalled.

SW7London

There is going to be an economic adjustment for the industry as they'll need to offer more attractive terms to workers, and as there is little fat left elsewhere it'll be a rise in ticket prices.

Of course like most the industry will still only pay what they can get away with but that seems to be at higher level than pre-covid.

Did fares get unsustainably low pre covid in real terms? Probably, so now there will be an upward adjustment and once the current pent up demand is worked through I'd say demand will be lower than it was pre covid due to the increase in prices (before considering if business travel will be reduced due to Zoom, Teams video conferencing etc etc)

With higher costs and less demand (for various reasons) the airlines will reduce flights where they cant make a return (which seems likely given any ticket increase will lead to a reduction in demand ) so the 2019 may well be a peak in air travel industry for some time (ie revenue, # passengers, frequencies, availability etc )

Will100

The most sensible post I’ve read on here for some time.

…and fully support the ‘adjustment to pay’ even if my tickets cost a bit more

KARFA

Whilst the sentiment is unarguable, the problem is if one airline can manage to get away with paying less and potentially have cheaper tickets people will generally pick them. The test is whether you deliberately pick airlines who offer higher prices but give better conditions to their staff.

davidcamp6

Although I do look to buy day to day from companies that pay the living wage I cannot see myself doing this with airfares, the differential in cost is likely to be too great. I only fly around 15 times a year, now so much can be done over Zoom I always look to save costs so that I, a sole trader, do not need to increase my own charges to my clients.

Lux Flyer

But that's the tradeoff, if you're paying less for your staff then a competitor, you're likely going to be facing shortages as you can't retain enough staff, and that will hamper your overall operation. If your operation is unreliable, no matter how cheap your tickets are, you're going to eventually lose customers who want to, you know, actually get to their destination reasonably close to when they were scheduled. Or worse, when the fines/penalties start adding up and the airline bleeds money because of their operational performance, eventually they'll be forced to realize paying their staff better, to get enough people hired to run a reliable operation, will be cheaper for them.

A lot of the airlines across the world are in the same boat right now with being short staffed and running a poor unreliable operation. But arguably there isn't much incentive to improve their operations, as flights that do operate are still going out full due to the high demand, and when the do cancel most of the times they're just refunding the money (that they've been holding and earning interest/investment returns on for a few months), since most passengers don't know what additional compensation they are actually entitled to. If regulations required the airlines to proactively offer the required compensation rather than it be in response to the passenger's request, wages would rise rapidly to be able to attract talent to support the actual operational need for people, but currently it's a better business position for airlines to operate an unreliable operation.

KARFA

Is it tho? FR seem to be doing very well operationally over the last few months with very few cancellations, yet the conditions for their staff are generally not great.

srbrenna

They’ve also said that the era of low fares is over.

KARFA

well it was more that it was an end of fares such as the €9.99 ones which were actually lower than the taxes and fees due. I am not trying to defend FR, and in terms of how staff are treated it isn’t a model to aspire to. But I am not sure there is a clear link with operational issues and poor staff pay.

i think short and medium term we are seeing air fares rising, and it is due more to supply not meeting demand as we exit the pandemic and rising fuel costs.

LCY8737

Increased cost will not necessarily lead to higher ticket prices. Proof in point: BA got rid of expensive staff during the pandemic and we're currently seeing some of the highest prices in a long time.

Prices are driven by demand, supply and what the competition does. Cost is just the long time lower end of where prices can be.

choosethedrew

Thank god someone has separated what’s often seen as one and the same

The perfect microcosm being the current Club World single tray. Just because it costs less to supply, do we expect BA to drop ticket prices? Only those who came down in the last shower.

HIDDY

The disgruntled worker should come and live here in subsidised AR land....70% inflation anyone?

13901

Ryanair has some deeply questionable ways of treating its staff, and even worse standards for suppliers (you don't want to be an airport that depends on FR, or a handler whose main customer is FR), but there is a big point to make: they have a very smart man at the helm.

MO'L might behave like a buffoon, but I strongly believe he's one of the (if not THE) smartest men in the industry. Unlike Alex Cruz, his master Willie and John Holland-Kaye he's a man who looks long term. He builds sustainable growth (unlike Wizz, I'd say) and was one of the few, again if not the only one, to say that demand was going to bounce back post pandemic, all while IATA and the supposedly 'knowledgeable' consultancies swore that winter was coming and lasting 'til 2025. He hasn't fired people, he stuck to his guns and FR is back to solid profits.

The disaster that HAL is in is 10% due to the government's slapdash approach to the pandemic and 90% self-inflicted. Ditto for IAG. They had a choice to think long term but no, they decided to grab a few bucks. And while the lesson might be learned over in IAG, or at least I'm seeing some promising signs, it doesn't seem like that at HAL based on how they're behaving right now.

subject2load

The consequences of short-term thinking by management - as referenced by 13901’s post above - is also exemplified in the Telegraph piece.

The ‘long-standing employee’ highlights what s/he sees as the damaging consequences of BA’s decision to remove its previously-available ticketing facilities at LHR :

“ If your flight has been cancelled or you have missed a connection, then you can expect anything up to a six-hour queue at flight connections, resulting in further dangerous bottlenecks at security. Once you are lucky enough to reach the front of the rebooking queue, a BA agent could be ringing a third person sitting either at home or in Delhi.

Before Covid, I could have helped you rebook your flight in minutes, but post-pandemic there is no longer a ticket desk at the airport, meaning passengers who rebook these days can expect to be sent to Manchester via Munich and such like. The outsourcing was supposed to save money but now appears to be costing the airline millions in compensation for delays, hotels for the night and extra tickets.“

Concerto

MOL actually speaks a lot of common sense, although the way he expresses himself can be a bit colourful. I have seen plenty of cheap fares on their network, such as €12.99 Düsseldorf NRN to Ancona on many dates (and €14.99 back) to name just one example. But when Ryanair is asking something like €232 for a one way basic ticket, I will not pay. For that sort of operation, €50-60 is my limit.