British Airways close to collapse

[Slats7]

British Airways close to collapse | Travel News | News.com.au

THE joint services agreement between Qantas and British Airways is in doubt after the British airline moves to cut flights and 10 per cent of its work force.

I think BA will survive.

 

[samh004]

I really hope they survive.

Looks like they need to tell the unions they're going to cut benefits, and if they don't like it, they probably wont have jobs at the end of the year anyway, so it's time to either accept less benefits, or look for a new job.

 

[albatross710]

British Airways close to collapse | Travel News | News.com.au



I think BA will survive.

Industries everywhere are reducing capacity. BA/QF seem to be in the same boat (or [air]ship perhaps.)

I know in my industry our capacity cuts have been in the form of 'stock on hand'. We battled with that from October 08 to April 09 and now are operating with 50% SOH compared to at the start of that process.

To my mind, as painful as it has and will be, most corporations will have adapted to the new world financials by August/September at which time we will see a reduction in the number of stock liquidations and crazy priced seat sales.

 

[NM]

My selfish view is that I hope they drop the one BA flight I have booked (BKK-SYD in September). But checking out the seat map shows only three other seats pre-allocated for the entire flight, and they are all in J. So for a flight 3 months out that implies poor forward bookings by status frequent fliers or high value fares as BA only allows pre-allocation for such passengers. Though I assume we will be moved to the QF flight if BA do drop the route.

I can't see BA collapsing. But they are likely to require some significant changes. I am sure they are seriously considering the viability of all routes at this time. And of course they can continue a presence on the Kangaroo routes using codeshares with QF operating.

I wonder what options may be viable for merging? Or is this just media hype to promote their desire for closer ties with AA to be permitted on the trans-Atlantic routes?

 

[Nigelinoz]

I have no doubt that if the worst came to worst the long suffering British taxpayer would be asked to chuck in some cash to keep them going till things improved,and they would have a reasonable case too,considering the money that the UK government has stumped up to keep banks going recently.

 

[Dave Noble]

The end of the price fixing agreement , sorry Joint sharing agreement, I wouldn't see as a bad thing; competition rather than collusion

Dave

 

[simongr]

The end of the price fixing agreement , sorry Joint sharing agreement, I wouldn't see as a bad thing; competition rather than collusion

Dave

Out of interest how is the JSA any more of a price fixing arrangement than for example an xONEx?

 

[Dave Noble]

Out of interest how is the JSA any more of a price fixing arrangement than for example an xONEx?

With the JSA, there is a price fixing which means that BA and QF charge precisely the same on those routes on all fares. Want a r/t from UK-Oz, they will have exactly the same options

The ATW fares are outside of the normal A-B fares and are just being offered in addition to normal r/t fares. could see how it might be viewed as price fixing, indeed... however it ( to me) seems a lot more minor

Dave

 

[wandering_fred]

With the note that WT+ and PremEcon seem to (now) be outside the scope of the JSA..... on LHR-Oz The two airlines charge difference prices - even when offering codeshares.......

If BA is in trouble - perhaps they will analyze the question of how many premium pax they lost when they decided to discontinue the status bonus for the AA FF program. What I want to see is through ticketing SEAsia (BA) LHR (AA) NAmerica.



Fred

 

[Nigelinoz]

FROM:
Fears of strike action as BA tells cabin crew 2,000 jobs must go - Times Online

British Airways has told its cabin crew that it wants to cut 2,000 jobs, leading to fears that the airline could be hit by a summer of strikes.
It is understood that BA’s management has already begun working on contingency plans to deal with possible industrial action during the busy holiday period. The airline told its 14,000 cabin crew last week that it was looking for the equivalent of 2,000 voluntary redundancies and if these cuts cannot be achieved, the losses could become compulsory

Unhappy times at BA,but I guess the same can be said of many airlines at the moment.

 

[serfty]

With the note that WT+ and PremEcon seem to (now) be outside the scope of the JSA..... on LHR-Oz The two airlines charge difference prices - even when offering codeshares.......

This is certainly the case.
QF A380 and other BA Codeshare quirks - FlyerTalk Forums

Latest Qantas News - Withdrawal of Qantas Selling Code on the British Airways World Traveller Plus Cabin

It looks like WT+/Y+ will no longer be part of the JSA. BA's premium WHY product being an inferior one to QF's.

It's just like when BA first brought out NCW, J fares on the Kangaroo route became disassociated from the JSA due to Qantas' J product (Dreamtime) being the inferior one.

This should make Some Oz based people happy as I would expect BA WT+ fares between Oz/Asia to come down with this.