British Airways blames pilots as it ditches plans for new low-cost airline | CNN

September 23, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

British Airways has abandoned plans to launch a low-cost carrier at London’s second biggest airport, Gatwick, blaming pilots for its decision to scrap the new initiative.

The reversal comes less than a month after British Airways unveiled plans for a short-haul subsidiary to compete with Ryanair (RYAAY) and EasyJet (ESYJY) in an area of aviation that is recovering more quickly from the pandemic than the transatlantic and other long-haul routes that used to generate most of its profit. It had hoped to start operating by next summer.

British Airways pilots set for summer strike | BBC News

August 1, 2019July 31, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

British Airways has lost an appeal aimed at halting planned strike action by its pilots.

The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) voted in favour of industrial action on 22 July, after three days of negotiations failed to resolve the dispute.

BA-owner IAG sought an injunction to prevent the strike in the High Court, but it was overturned.

British Airways New Customer Service Initiative | Airlinereporter.com

September 15, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Recently, British Airways started keeping information on some of their VIP customers and searching for their images online all in the name of service. The program, called “Know Me,” has some privacy advocates worried.

“Last year we re-committed to the ethos: To Fly. To Serve. That’s what ‘Know Me’ is all about – enabling us to recognise our customers in a way that is individual to them,” Jo Boswell, head of customer analysis at British Airways, stated. “We’re essentially trying to recreate the feeling of recognition you get in a favourite restaurant when you’re welcomed there, but in our case it will be delivered by thousands of staff to millions of customers.”

The idea is simple enough. Airline employees have iPads which contain information on high-end passengers. What kind of food they prefer, if it is the first time they have flown with a certain product and if they might have had previous issues flying on the airline. The software also allows the crew to identify a passenger by searching Google Images.