LYCOS RETRIEVER 
British Airways
built 396 days ago
By early 2001, the British Airways fleet and product strategy appeared to be working. Two positive trends had emerged: premium business traffic was on the rise and costs were on the decline. Pretax profits in 2000-2001 amounted to £145 million, a marked improvement over the previous year's £5 million. The impact of the U.S. economic slowdown remained to be determined, though, and the airline faced difficult conditions in both passenger and cargo markets. British Airways' fleet of seven Concordes was expected to return to service after a full year of safety modifications and further comfort upgrades. However, the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., in September 2001, added new levels of financial stress and uncertainty to the travel and airline industries.
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British Airways was the first carrier to offer a seat that converts to a fully flat bed for business class travellers. Club World has won the endorsement of customers generating loyalty and driving improved customer satisfaction. The flat bed has won a host of accolades from both the design and travel industry, including the prestigious Grand Prix at the International Design Effectiveness Awards and the Marketing Society's Award for Innovation.
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While the alliance with United was still operating, British Airways suffered losses in Europe in 1990 and 1991 because of the Gulf crisis in the Middle East. Shortly after, in July 1991, it entered into an alliance with Aeroflot in Russia to create a new airline called Air Russia. After several false starts over the next few years, this venture never got off the ground. Additional proposed alliances failed for assorted other reasons. Officials from British Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines held merger discussions in 1991 and 1992, but talks broke down over the valuation of the two firms. Later in 1992 British Airways attempted to purchase 44 percent of USAir Inc. for $750 million.
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In 1996 British Airways, with its newly appointed Chief Executive Bob Ayling, entered a period of turbulence. Increased competition, high oil prices and a strong pound hurt profits. BA management and trade unions clashed and the disruption cost the company hundreds of millions of pounds. In 1997 Ayling dropped BA's traditional Union Flag tailfin livery in favour of world design tailfins, in an effort to change its image from a strictly British and aloof carrier to a more cosmopolitan airline. The move was not a success and Ayling slowed the process, eventually declaring the fleet would sport a dual livery; half a Union Flag design, half the world design tailfins. Ayling pursued antitrust immunity with American Airlines, but this was unsuccessful due to the conditions placed on the deal by regulatory authorities, the most painful of which would have been the sacrifice of landing slots at Heathrow.[5]
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Despite British Airways assurances of improving standards, serious incidents continue to be revealed. As recent as May 1997 a published AAIB report describes a BA Boeing 747 passenger door becoming insecure at high altitude on a Nairobi bound flight soon after take off, due to unavailability of necessary tools during previous maintenance. Engineers not only cleared the aircraft for service but advised flight to continue even when notified of the fault by radio report from the aircrew. This resulted in cabin staff having to lash the door in position with the help of seat belts during a passenger carrying flight. The report stated that the engineer did not ground the aircraft because of operational pressures. David Hyde, BA Directorof Safety when interviewed on May 12th agreed that there were "Always operational pressures".
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British Airways was pleased that the campaign’s "adverts" were "brilliantly" received. Approximately 558,000 people saw the BA.com splash page with an average user session of two minutes and 17 seconds. Visitors selected 246,545 Brit-speak dictionary words, averaging almost 12 words per user session. The Insider’s Guide got 28,160 clicks and 3,776 category prints. In addition, over four thousand messages were sent via e-mail and mobile text messaging.
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