I certainly don’t agree with the title of this thread – BUT, I think the evidence is continuing to mount that some ‘full service’ airlines are facing some big issues demonstrating their ‘value proposition’ to a wide spectrum of customers.
This appeared in today’s Airline Transport World.
Cheers
Pedota
BA fears 'permanent' fall in premium demand, surging pension deficit
Wednesday July 15, 2009
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh continued to maintain yesterday that the carrier is in a "fight for survival" and that "just hoping for old high-roller times to return is the road to oblivion" at the company's annual shareholders meeting in London.
"There is no point trying to skirt around the fact that we need a fundamental and structural change to our employee cost base. These changes are essential to our short-term survival and more importantly to our long-term viability," he said. BA is in talks with unions to reduce its about 40,000-strong workforce by some 3,700 employees (ATWOnline, July 7).
Chairman Martin Broughton said the continuous fall in premium demand is "extremely grave news for major full-service airlines" and cautioned that the premium market may never recover fully. "There is evidence that business customers no longer place the same value on the levels of flexibility offered in the highest fare categories. This represents permanent structural change in the market and poses a fundamental challenge to our traditional business model," he said.
(The article continues focusing on the difficulties in getting the Iberia deal done).