BA set to announce very large loss
Are BA still paying King and Marshall? They should be the first to come off the payroll...
Why can Stelios manage to run a successful business from an old warehouse and yet the Waterworks luvvies can't manage to run a damn thing? 'Silly New Catchy Name' programmes to sort out yet more cock-ups? Not as effective as actually doing something positive!
'Future Size and Shape' = 'What can we cut next?'. .'Business First' = '$od the proles'
Now they seem to be polarising - stupid ad campaigns which are wasting money trying to attract more business travellers to be ripped off paying absurd premium prices at one end of the scale and 'leave the food behind' cheapo policies at the other.
How about a new programme 'Fare Deals for All'? And fire the feng shui flower arrangers at Waterworks. In fact sell the damn place and lock the finance team and marketing people into a disused carpet warehouse until they work out how to run something efficiently...
I still remember the despicable 'Dirty Tricks' saga - and until BA cleanses itself of that stench, quite a few people will avoid flying with them if there's any alternative.. . . .Best of luck to the flight and cabin crews though - it's certainly not your fault that despite your professional efforts a bunch of total donkeys is letting your company slide down the pan.
[ 04 February 2002: Message edited by: BEagle ]</p>
Why can Stelios manage to run a successful business from an old warehouse and yet the Waterworks luvvies can't manage to run a damn thing? 'Silly New Catchy Name' programmes to sort out yet more cock-ups? Not as effective as actually doing something positive!
'Future Size and Shape' = 'What can we cut next?'. .'Business First' = '$od the proles'
Now they seem to be polarising - stupid ad campaigns which are wasting money trying to attract more business travellers to be ripped off paying absurd premium prices at one end of the scale and 'leave the food behind' cheapo policies at the other.
How about a new programme 'Fare Deals for All'? And fire the feng shui flower arrangers at Waterworks. In fact sell the damn place and lock the finance team and marketing people into a disused carpet warehouse until they work out how to run something efficiently...
I still remember the despicable 'Dirty Tricks' saga - and until BA cleanses itself of that stench, quite a few people will avoid flying with them if there's any alternative.. . . .Best of luck to the flight and cabin crews though - it's certainly not your fault that despite your professional efforts a bunch of total donkeys is letting your company slide down the pan.
[ 04 February 2002: Message edited by: BEagle ]</p>
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I cant wait to see what this size and shape thing looks like. BA wont relinquish slots at LHR and its creating a whole new airline at LGW to preserve current slots in order to keep stelios and his satsumas in check. I cant believe that King is still in place. Who knows, maybe BA will concentrate on its transatlantic and other longhaul operations and ditch its shorthaul netowrk into LHR. Maybe service primary airports such as CDG,FRA,MUC,BRU,BCL,DUB,EDI,MAN,GLA and others. Let BMI take up the secondary airports. These other countries have thier own airlines, they have rights to LHR. If the passengers want to fly longhaul with BA they will. a partnership with KLM would help, but I think they need to look at France, our most immediate nieghbour. AF could bring in pax to LHR, via CDG/ORY. But then partnerships are usually illegal. Sod it, to much thinking. Open LHR and let BA take its chances. If it cant become competitive in a protected market, through it in with the sharks, if it swims it swims.
[ 04 February 2002: Message edited by: PPRuNe Towers ]</p>
[ 04 February 2002: Message edited by: PPRuNe Towers ]</p>
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British Airways reports £160m third-quarter loss. . . .British Airways reported a large third-quarter loss on Monday and warned that it still faced "considerable challenges" despite some signs of a recovery in the market.
Europe's leading carrier recorded a pre-tax loss of £160m ($226m) in the three months to the end of December, against a profit of £65m for the same period a year ago.
The result was considerably better than the forecast consensus loss of £230m. But the shares, which rallied at the end of last week after cautious optimism about prospects from rival KLM and major US carriers, fell 5¾p, or 3 per cent, to 206¾p in London in early morning trading.
BA is next week expected to announce thousands more redundancies as part of a major restructuring of the airline. But Rod Eddington, BA's chief executive, refused to be drawn on the details of the strategic review - called Future Size and Shape - although he admitted there would be "an important impact on jobs."
Speculation about the scale of the losses, has ranged from 4,000 to 16,000. BA is already cutting 7,200 jobs in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and had shed 5,800 of those by the end of the third quarter.
"We have made real progress in managing our costs but British Airways still faces a number of other considerable challenges some of which were apparent before the terrorist attacks on the USA," Mr Eddington said.
The planned restructuring is expected to focus on tackling the highly unprofitable European operations, which are increasingly suffering in competition from the low-cost carriers.
Mr Eddington has set an ambitious target to deliver profit margins of close to 10 per cent, a level almost unheard of in aviation.
BA's perennially loss-making short-haul operation at London Gatwick faces the biggest shake-up, but Mr Eddington denied he was planning to set up another low-cost carrier less than a year after selling Go. He said he remained convinced that running a full-service and a no-frills carrier within the same airline was unmanageable: "No-one has ever been able to do it."
Mr Eddington said there were no plans for a rights issue to cut the carrier's £6bn debt burden but said that reducing the debt was "a major priority for us."
The third quarter results - one of the biggest quarterly losses in BA's history - reflect the magnitude of the task.
The airline recorded an operating loss of £187m, compared with a profit of £80m a year ago. BA's loss per share was 13.4p against a profit of 3.3p last time.
The result, which was lifted by one-off gains of £34m, largely from the disposal of investments, left BA with a nine month pre-tax loss of £115m, compared with a profit of £215m a year ago.
But BA said demand was beginning to recover from the slump that plunged the industry into crisis in the first few months after the terrorist attacks on the US in September.
"The general economic weakness in many of our key markets is expected to continue, however, the initial uncertainty and concern caused by the events of September 11 have diminished and as a consequence there is an improving revenue trend," said Lord Marshall, BA's chairman.
Revenues fell by almost 20 per cent to £1.84bn in the third quarter as BA, like its rivals, responded to the fall-off in demand, by cutting capacity and discounting heavily.
Nevertheless, passenger yields, a measure of ticket prices, rose by 0.3 pe rcent in the quarter.
The cut in seat capacity in the quarter of 16.3 per cent lagged a 20.3 per cent fall in traffic. The North Atlantic, BA's most important market, was the worst hit by the terrorist attacks, which compounded the US economic recession.
Europe's leading carrier recorded a pre-tax loss of £160m ($226m) in the three months to the end of December, against a profit of £65m for the same period a year ago.
The result was considerably better than the forecast consensus loss of £230m. But the shares, which rallied at the end of last week after cautious optimism about prospects from rival KLM and major US carriers, fell 5¾p, or 3 per cent, to 206¾p in London in early morning trading.
BA is next week expected to announce thousands more redundancies as part of a major restructuring of the airline. But Rod Eddington, BA's chief executive, refused to be drawn on the details of the strategic review - called Future Size and Shape - although he admitted there would be "an important impact on jobs."
Speculation about the scale of the losses, has ranged from 4,000 to 16,000. BA is already cutting 7,200 jobs in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and had shed 5,800 of those by the end of the third quarter.
"We have made real progress in managing our costs but British Airways still faces a number of other considerable challenges some of which were apparent before the terrorist attacks on the USA," Mr Eddington said.
The planned restructuring is expected to focus on tackling the highly unprofitable European operations, which are increasingly suffering in competition from the low-cost carriers.
Mr Eddington has set an ambitious target to deliver profit margins of close to 10 per cent, a level almost unheard of in aviation.
BA's perennially loss-making short-haul operation at London Gatwick faces the biggest shake-up, but Mr Eddington denied he was planning to set up another low-cost carrier less than a year after selling Go. He said he remained convinced that running a full-service and a no-frills carrier within the same airline was unmanageable: "No-one has ever been able to do it."
Mr Eddington said there were no plans for a rights issue to cut the carrier's £6bn debt burden but said that reducing the debt was "a major priority for us."
The third quarter results - one of the biggest quarterly losses in BA's history - reflect the magnitude of the task.
The airline recorded an operating loss of £187m, compared with a profit of £80m a year ago. BA's loss per share was 13.4p against a profit of 3.3p last time.
The result, which was lifted by one-off gains of £34m, largely from the disposal of investments, left BA with a nine month pre-tax loss of £115m, compared with a profit of £215m a year ago.
But BA said demand was beginning to recover from the slump that plunged the industry into crisis in the first few months after the terrorist attacks on the US in September.
"The general economic weakness in many of our key markets is expected to continue, however, the initial uncertainty and concern caused by the events of September 11 have diminished and as a consequence there is an improving revenue trend," said Lord Marshall, BA's chairman.
Revenues fell by almost 20 per cent to £1.84bn in the third quarter as BA, like its rivals, responded to the fall-off in demand, by cutting capacity and discounting heavily.
Nevertheless, passenger yields, a measure of ticket prices, rose by 0.3 pe rcent in the quarter.
The cut in seat capacity in the quarter of 16.3 per cent lagged a 20.3 per cent fall in traffic. The North Atlantic, BA's most important market, was the worst hit by the terrorist attacks, which compounded the US economic recession.
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Rumours about massive job cuts have been circulating for weeks, with BBC News Online readers sending e-mails suggesting that BA had ordered 15,000 redundancy notices with a printing company in Basingstoke
only 15,000. That will just about make up the deficit in the hobnob budget at waterside
only 15,000. That will just about make up the deficit in the hobnob budget at waterside
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Roobarb. .The 7,200 mentioned in your earlier post have gone - according to Rod Eddington earlier today!. .If the Sunday Times speculation is correct, there will be around another 9,000 - perhaps over the next five years!
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Rumour has it that a printers in Basing stoke has already been asked to print 16,000 BA redundancy notices (as reported on a "oneworld Parters" intranet site).
The 16,000 number seems to be consistant throughout the rumour mill.
Whatever way you cut it GBP200 million is a hell of a loss for a 3 month period.
The 16,000 number seems to be consistant throughout the rumour mill.
Whatever way you cut it GBP200 million is a hell of a loss for a 3 month period.
