Are its Own Employees the “Biggest Threat” to
Last week, the chief executive of British Airways gave a speech at the Royal Aeronautical Society in Central London. Alex Cruz had attended the event mainly to mark the airline’s centenary celebrations but he did also share a few nuggets of information with the assembled guests. One of the more controversial off-the-cuff remarks happened to be the suggestion that “the main threat to BA’s future is the staff themselves”.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a transcript of what exactly was said but the alleged comments were quickly picked up by a number of bloggers. The general feeling was that Cruz is right – after years of losses and cutbacks, British Airways is not only finally profitable but its also making huge investments (£6.5 billion at the last count) to improve the passenger experience.
British Airways has been basking in loads of positive headlines from events to mark its centenary and the remainder of the year should be one of celebration. But there’s one big problem – staff morale has taken a battering and a dispute over pay and working conditions is pitting nearly every front line workgroup including pilots, cabin crew and engineers against management.
There’s even talk of strike action, although nothing has yet been confirmed by the three main trade unions who represent the majority of BA’s 45,000 employees.
Understandably, the comments did not apparently go down very well with some of BA’s employees. The unions have been arguing that British Airways has turned itself around and become hugely profitable because of the hard work of its staff – the claim that employees could prove to be the airline’s undoing is clearly the last thing that anyone wants to hear.
Soon after last weeks speech, Cruz is understood to have been forced to tackle the allegations head on – taking to an internal social media site to dispel rumours and set the record straight.
The comments had, apparently, been taken completely out of context. In a more nuanced version of his original comments, Cruz said that “there truly is only one thing that will stop us from becoming the best airline in the world: us”. He allegedly goes on to say that everyone must work together, embrace change and support one another.
It’s a small but significant difference – rather than saying a dispute over pay and conditions could plunge British Airways back into the red, Cruz is instead saying the airline’s employees are its best asset and the driver towards making British Airways even better.
The delivery might be a little clumsy but perhaps Cruz is saying that he needs to do more to get staff “onboard” with his vision of the future of British Airways? If that is the case, these comments (however well-intentioned) won’t have helped and nor will the ongoing pay dispute.
In a recent survey, only 36% of employees said the airline was making the right choice for customer, while only 21% of employees said they feel recognised for the contribution they make. Clearly, there’s a lot to do to get staffers to “buy in” to Cruz’s strategy – a problem that is no doubt familar with many chief executives in all industries around the world.
Mateusz Maszczynski
Mateusz Maszczynski is a serving international flight attendant with experience at a major Middle East and European airline. Mateusz is passionate about the aviation industry and helping aspiring flight attendants achieve their dreams. Cabin crew recruitment can be tough, ultra-competitive and just a little bit confusing - Mateusz has been there and done that. He's got the low down on what really works.
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Extinction Rebellion Protestors Threaten to “Shut Down” Heathrow Airport Tomorrow
Over the last few days, hundreds of environmental protestors have descended on major intersections and landmarks in Central London shutting down roads and even super-glueing themselves to a mass transit train in order to gain publicity. The protestors from a group calling itself ‘Extinction Rebellion’ have been largely peaceful but business groups in London say the demonstrations and sit-ins have cost companies millions of pounds in lost revenue and productivity.
The protests started on Monday when protestors initially targeted the headquarters of oil conglomerate Shell but it soon spread to Parliament Square, Waterloo Bridge and the shopping mecca of Oxford Circus – where a bright pink boat is parked in the middle of what is normally one of London’s busiest intersections.
Extinction Rebellion says the world is facing an “environmental emergency” and claim that “peaceful, nonviolent, civil disobedience” is absolutely essential to draw attention to what they’re calling the “most pressing issue of our time.” The group is demanding the British government “tells the truth” about climate change and wants the authorities to commit to reducing greenhouse emissions to net zero by 2025.
As you can imagine, the British government hasn’t really engaged with the protestors so the demonstrations continue – Extinction Rebellion says they plan to keep going for at least two weeks. So far, London’s Metropolitan Police Service says they’ve arrested more than 480 people in connection with the protests that they describe as “unacceptable”.
The police have deployed more than 1,000 officers, cancelled leave and day’s off, got officers working 12-hour shifts and even asked for help from police forces outside of London. Despite those efforts, they haven’t managed to clear the protests and now there’s a new threat.
The British media have been reporting that Extinction Rebellion plans to “shut down” Heathrow Airport on Friday – which coincides with the start of the Easter holidays.
The protest group has acknowledged the threat, saying that it is justified in targeting Europe’s busiest airport because we face a “manmade disaster on a global scale”.
“We are aware of information that suggests the protesters will carry out a demonstration on Friday, 19 April in the vicinity of Heathrow Airport,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
“We have strong plans in place that will enable us to deploy a significant number of officers to Heathrow and take firm action against any protester seeking to cause disruption at this location by committing criminal offences such as obstruction of the highway.”
Whereas the police seem to have been pretty ineffective stopping disruption in Central London, they appear to be taking a very different tact against the threat to Heathrow.
“The airport is part of our national infrastructure and we will not allow the illegal activities of protesters to cause further disruption and misery to thousands of travellers, many of them families, over Easter. We would urge any protester planning to attend Heathrow to strongly reconsider.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Heathrow confirmed that the airport was “working with the authorities to address any threat of protests which could disrupt the airport.”
The spokesperson told us: “While we respect the right to peaceful protest and agree with the need to act on climate change, we don’t agree that passengers should have their well-earned Easter Break holiday plans with family and friends disrupted.”
They also said Heathrow was one of the first airports in the world to sign up to the goals of the landmark Paris climate agreement.
This isn’t the first time Heathrow has been targeted by environmental protestors. In 2017, protestors first blocked a major tunnel going into the airport and later in the year, activists broke onto the runway and chained themselves to scaffolding to disrupt the airport.
Enviromentalists have long campaigned against plans to build a third runway at the airport – British lawmakers gave the greenlight for expansion last year, although the expansion faces many legal challenges and it could be years before work begins.
