BA Asks Staff to Work For Nothing

Reuters, The New York Times, 6/16/2009

British Airways, which reported a record annual loss last month, said on Tuesday it had asked its staff to work for free as part of the company's battle for "survival" in tough market conditions.

The appeal to its British-based employees, which featured in the company's staff magazine, asks workers to volunteer for between a week and a month in unpaid leave or in unpaid work.

Chief Executive Willie Walsh, who along with the chief financial officer Keith Williams has promised to work for nothing in July, said the idea was part of BA's across the board cost-cutting measures.

"Many of you from across the airline are stepping up to help the company," Walsh said.

"I am looking for every single part of the company to take part in some way in this cash-effective way of helping the company's survival plan. It really counts."

BA, Europe's third-biggest airline by revenue, posted annual operating losses of 220 million pounds and scrapped its dividend in May, saying it had suffered from a downturn in air travel and forecast no immediate revival.

It said 1,000 employees had volunteered to take part in a Business Response Scheme launched at the time which allowed staff to take a month's unpaid leave or to switch to part-time contracts.

Walsh, who earned 735,000 pounds a year, was one of those to sign up.

The new measure, which is designed to be more flexible, would not be compulsory but the company was instead encouraging staff to "play their part," a spokeswoman said.

Other companies have launched similar schemes in response to the global aviation crisis, including Cathay Pacific, where the majority of its workforce has signed up, BA said.

Last week, the company said it was in discussions with its pilots about taking pay cuts. Walsh has also said there would be more redundancies after reducing BA's headcount by 2,500 since March last year.

(Reporting by Michael Holden)

 

BA To Abandon NYC/Gatwick Service As Transatlantic Share Grows

Amon Cohen, Business Travel News, 6/5/2009 (excerpted)

British Airways is gaining corporate marketshare on transatlantic routes but losing it on routes to Asia/Pacific, owing to aggressive pricing by competitors, the carrier said.

Head of U.K. and Ireland sales Richard Tams also said BA is pulling its Gatwick-New York route, the last remaining service from London's second airport to the Big Apple, because of disappointing premium traffic, but corporate clients have reaffirmed their support for the forthcoming launch of New York service from London City Airport.

Passenger numbers in May fell 7.3 percent worldwide compared with May 2008, although capacity had been reduced by 6.5 percent. What hurt BA more severely was that revenue passenger kilometers were down 17.2 percent in the profit-critical premium cabins, while down only 4.2 percent in economy.

Analyzed by region, passenger volumes on European and Africa/Middle East routes dropped around 7 percent, but the Americas were down 3.3 percent and Asia/Pacific was down 19.2 percent.

Much of this variation can be explained by where BA has chosen to cut capacity. The airline has axed several routes to Asia/Pacific and reduced its London-Tokyo service. However, said Tams of the region, "The competition has good product and it is pricing very aggressively to buy a lot of the business."

In contrast, said Tams, "In North America we have very successfully managed to secure our business and succeeded in moving marketshare on certain major U.S. routes. We have tried as much as possible to take out capacity in a sensitive way that does not disrupt the needs of our business passengers."

Meanwhile, BA has become the final airline to withdraw from the Gatwick-New York route. The flight will be pulled from October, leaving Gatwick, among the world's 10 busiest international airports, without a New York service for the first time in 25 years following earlier withdrawals by Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines.

However, the airline is pushing ahead with plans to launch the first transatlantic service from the much smaller London City airport, close to the U.K. capital's new Canary Wharf financial district. "The level of interest from our customers remains very high," said Tams. "Although volumes to New York have dropped, they like the uniqueness of a 15-minute check-in for an all-business-class service a short distance from Canary Wharf."

 

Irish Carrier Expands Gatwick Network

Phil Davies, Travel Mole, 6/9/2009 (excerpted)

Aer Lingus is to expand routes served from its new hub at Gatwick this winter.

The Irish carrier is to fly to six new destinations, bringing the network up to 13 routes as flights to Nice will not run over the winter.

The new routes from October 25 will be Bucharest, Eindhoven, Tenerife, Lanzarote and Warsaw. Flights to Vilinus start on September 10.

They will be in addition to existing services to Dublin, Faro, Knock, Malaga, Munich, Vienna and Zurich.

The airline will operate 118 round trips a week from Gatwick with the addition of the new services.

 

Ryanair to Send Text Flight Confirmations

Phil Davies, Travel Mole, 6/9/2009 (excerpted)

Ryanair is to provide flight booking confirmations by mobile phone text message at a cost of £1.

Passengers will no longer have to print out confirmation emails as their itinerary can be sent to their mobile within 24 hours of booking, according to the airline.

 

Ryanair to Shut Website for Ten Hours

Phil Davies, Travel Mole, 6/16/2009 (excerpted)

Ryanair passengers are being told they must check in online in advance of the airline's website closing for ten hours.

The site will close from 19.00 on June 24 until 05.00 the following morning due to an “essential upgrade maintenance”. 

Web check-in passengers travelling on Thursday, June 25 must ensure that they have checked in online before 18.00 on Wednesday, June 24, the airline said. 

Ryanair's website will not be available for passenger bookings or other passenger services from 19.00 due to the upgrade works.

Passengers who booked flights on or before the May 21 and selected to use airport check-in will be unaffected and can check-in at the airport as normal.

“Ryanair apologises for any inconvenience caused by this maintenance work,” a statement said.