Well I was going to comply with Topman's request (he's clearly quite skilled in CRM), but I've had so many replies that I'm going to respond (may the force...)
Does anyone remember the forecasts for BA at the start of this year? Profits of £400 million+ were predicted by Merril Lynch and co. That was with the current workforce and the "problems in all areas".
The problems started with Bob Ayling's inspired strategy of focussing on Premium traffic which led initially to profits and the above mentioned forecasts BUT at the same time was (is) a very high risk strategy, leaving BA at the mercy of the world, and in particular the American, economy.
Before September 11th forward bookings had dropped off the planet, so to speak, due to the downturn (and now recession) in the US economy. That dreadful day compounded the situation and has left us all in the situation we ALL find ourselves in.
My point is that the strategy is very high risk: it's brilliant when the economy is booming, but when it slumps it's disastrous. Hence we find ourselves in a fight for survival where any option is considerable - including getting rid of shorthaul. The focus seems to have been distorted: if PAX want to fly from A to B we should be able to offer them a product that provides them with the service at a realistic price. Unfortunately we can't because put plainly and simply our overheads are too high, far too high, and the reason for that is that we employ too many people who contribute little or nothing at all to the end product of flying an a/c from A to B. It's not too many crew meals, or hotac in "glamourous" city locations and it's certainly not the Flight and Cabin Crews at EOG, who are the hardest working and worst paid of all flying crew in BA.
As for Team Spirit and Motivation, there are 3000 Cabin Crew sitting around EOG and Crawley on Standby at the moment with very little work for them (since the 73s went to LHR), but there's no sign of bitching or complaining from them. On the contrary, they've been thoroughly professional and we continue to have cracking nightstops. As for Flight Crew, we just get on with it, don't we...
Finally, Mike-Hunt, I never said that BA franchise operators are sub-standard to BA, only that BA employ high quality crews. As I've never worked for one I can't compare the standards, so personally my mind is an open book. To be honest, however, there is a view in BA that our standards are amongst the best and I personally think it is justified.
