500 British Airways senior managers quit. Board member quoted as stating 'we are panicking'.
No doubt BA is in serious crisis, is this mass resignation a precursor to the content of the Despatches documentary 'The trouble with British Airways' scheduled to air this Monday at 8pm on Channel 4.The programme is investigating the demise of British Airways.
Seems they are coming in for more and more critcism from all quarters, with calls from Scottish MPs for BA to be renamed London Airways
Spin and boll0cks as always, 450 out of 1400 elected to take voluntary redundancy. Oddly enough only those that could realistically spared were sent letters.
No panic yet, just cost savings.
And scotland is grumpy over the closure of the Glasgow base.
How exactly has BA been rocked by this????? If you care to remember about one month ago BA asked 1500 managers to take voluntary severance packages or face compulsary redundancies. It was announced yesterday internally that 500 managers had volunteered and after a review ALL applications for voluntary redundancy were execpted, the said managers will be leaving the company at the end of the year. I fail to see how this can be construed as you are making out that 500 managers resigned out of the 'blue'. And as for that tw*t Salmond up there in Scotland, how does the closure of a GLA base consitute a pull out from Scotland, all of the flights remain unchanged, besides it has been a long time since BA was a national airline, it is now a private company who can fly to and from where it so wishes. On the other hand though with the government nationalising every other private business under the sun at the moment perhaps the good old days of a huge loss making national airline that has aircraft based in every regional centre is not far away again, perhaps a model something like Alitalia
Mirror: Rule No1. "Don't let facts get in way of a good story"
BA asked for volunteers to take redundancy and to their credit 450 decided to do just that and BA accepted their applications. A surprise to no one.
What is going on. Times are tough enough without this sort of media BS. I see "Dispatches" are going for another hatchett job on BA next week. Are they trying to demonstrate the fabled power of the media in talking down a blue chip company.
We are pleased with the take up for the scheme. The number is in line with our expectations and means we can deliver on our commitment to reduce our management headcount.
Doesn't sound like BA are rocked or that the board are panicking.
I also think it's a touch rich coming from Alex 'I'm on the get as much cash from Westminster gravy train' Salmon to criticise any company. He wants Scottish independence? Let every company pull out of Scotland and then have to re-apply under Open Skies :-)
The Glasgow base has been closed as a cost measure after being considered for the last 3 years. I comes as absolutely no surprise and all the crew will be offered transfers and a pick of fleets. Add to that the commuting opportunities, and no reduction in services to Scotland and you can live where you want and commute to work.
Once BA gets rid of the rest of the 'manage coffee flow' dead heads in Water World they will be far better streamlined than this time last year.
p.s. I seem to remember BA running at about 160/airframe, Iberia 120/airframe and American at about 90/airframe. Still lots to trim
Working for BA and having already been told about the departure of some of our managers.......... Can't say I was exactly rocked ...... It's more a case of don't let the door hit you on the bum as you leave .........
Well out of curiousity just thought would click the link and see who is reporting this and low and be hold it is the newspaper known around the world for it's journalistic accuracy..............The Mirror..............
This is potentially more damagaing than it looks. All managers were asked if they wished voluntary redunacy, noone would be rejected as been the case before. 450 have elected to take this. This is most likely to be the best 450 who will have little difficulty getting another job. In other words the best managers are leaving and the rest are staying to run the company. As a shareholder I find this deeply disturbing. WW has effectively got rid of all the managers that were ready to catch him when he falls back down to earth and clearly he doesn't care. What's next?? Like most other shares BA's are in freefall and although something needs to be done to bolster confidence mine has now completely gone. BA will now try to merge with as many other carriers as it can in an attempt to increase market share and reduce costs. These are always harder to achieve than it looks and really BA could end up being the junior partner if things continue to go in the direction they seem to be going!!
This is most likely to be the best 450 who will have little difficulty getting another job. In other words the best managers are leaving and the rest are staying to run the company.
This is always a risk, however given the current economic climate I wouldn't rate their chances of immediate employment elsewhere too highly.
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Like most other shares BA's are in freefall...
I would be more concerned if it was only BA's shares in freefall.
You can, indeed, be the best manager in the 'primp statistics to fit the ego' department but, lets face it, no one will really miss you.
It is time to streamline and excess management is a good place to start.
Add to the fact that when you start going after other departments it gives WW the moral ( ) high ground as he can claim to have weeded his patch already!
So BA is about 160 staff / airframe. I know I'm not comparing eggs with eggs but easyJet must be about 40ish per airframe. 45 million pax this year, figures for September +22%. BA -5%......... premium traffic is going to disappear in this financial climate.....
All airlines face a hideous 2009 - but I cannot see how BA can continue to operate with such a heavy management structure. What do they all do??
I don't want this post to sound conceited...... but I am still amazed at the size "da management" in BA. Do BA still have their own handling - does that account for considerably higher staff/airframe ratio?
BA still carries alot of outdated 'personnel' baggage from the heavily militant, unionised 1970's including alot of outdated work practices.
Compare BA to Virgin/AA/Iberia etc on a pilot to LH/SH airframe basis and they all come up roughly the same. Pilots have always been hunted and trimmed by management as they are the most expensive PAYE employee.
BA is streamlined from a pilotage perspective however they are very fat in other departments (no pun intended!).
Easyjet/Ryanair out source a vast amount of their handling/cleaning etc. BA don't. Also comparing SH to LH is a non starter as the requirements are totally different.
Painful days to come but that applies to the industry not just BA.
As an outsider one just wonders what 450 managers did for 250 days a year that no one will notice is no longer done when they don't turn up to do it any more in the future?
There are some really great companies that rule their sector on 450 employees...
If BA goes it will take CitiFlyer with it. So laugh it up. Oddly enough many of the pilots working LH/SH in 'Birdseed' are still approaching/hitting the CAA hours limitation so it's difficult to see where the 'pampered' lifestyle comes from.
It's ironic that many pilots rostered hours on SH are in excess of Easyjet. EJ do more sectors admittedly but hours wise BA are squeezing everything they can out of the pilot force!
All BA Managers (with the exception of Pilots in management roles) were sent the letter offering the voluntary redundancy package. The letters were not targetted at all.
The proportion of managers who have agreed to volunteer for severance obviously varies from department to department. In some areas it is the complete management team.
The new interim management stucture will be announced next week with the remaining managers slotting into roles they are suitable for. If there are roles not filled, the company will be looking outside for candidates.
Don't compare BA with EZY. As stated above longhaul network airlines do require more management than shorthaul point to point. Also some airlines describe managers in a different way so it can be difficult to compare airlines' management to aircraft ratios without looking carefully at the proportions of insourcing/outsourcing and whether a carrier is primarily domestic or international. While BA is clearly top heavy in management, straight comparison is difficult.
And as for that tw*t Salmond up there in Scotland, how does the closure of a GLA base consitute a pull out from Scotland, all of the flights remain unchanged, besides it has been a long time since BA was a national airline, it is now a private company who can fly to and from where it so wishes. On the other hand though with the government nationalising every other private business under the sun at the moment perhaps the good old days of a huge loss making national airline that has aircraft based in every regional centre is not far away again, perhaps a model something like Alitalia
) high ground as he can claim to have weeded his patch already!
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