BA – Break up the brand and Fly BEA

BA has a challenge. In fact it has several. Cabin crew. Money. Competition. Brand image. And there may be more. Cabin crew and cash-flow are issues for the management to solve, though it is obvious that unless the cabin crew’s productivity is similar to the competition then the airline can’t be viable in a competitive market.

More fundamental to long term viability and success is the brand image that drives passenger loyalty and their willingness to pay a premium.

Like many, I very much like the BA long-haul First and business class experience. The new lounges at T5 are both beautiful and comfortable. The in-flight space and flat beds are very good – though the fact that US airlines like United are now fitting similar kit, and Asian airlines like Etihad and SIA are arguably superior means that this is no longer a differentiator.

However, the BA brand experience is critically harmed whenever one flies BA short-haul around Europe. This has been driven by the need to compete with budget airlines like Ryanair - now remarkably the World’s Favourite Airline by the passenger numbers metric that BA used to make that claim. However, it means that there is a dramatic difference in the brand experience. A businessman flying BA from Frankfurt to New York and back will still get a very good trans-Atlantic ride, but his most recent memory of BA when he gets home will be the packet of peanuts thrown at him on the cramped final leg.

One answer would to break up the airline back into two separate organisations, though I am told that getting feeder traffic is important to the economics of long-haul. That could be solved by feeder and scheduling agreements, but a simpler answer is just to break up the brand. Whilst the BA brand still has some positive remaining equity from its long-haul, restrict the BA brand to that. And reintroduce a separate brand for the short-haul, which would have a very different proposition, more like “the reliable cheap regional airline that connects with BA’s long-haul flights”.

And there is already a good heritage brand ready to fly – BEA, British European Airways. It may no longer be No.1 in Europe, as it claimed in 1969, but it could go back to the claim it made in 1952. “New Cheap Return Fares”. Though I doubt they will be able to offer “Paris for as little as £9.15 return”