What a humiliation for our f lag-carrier
BA has 45,000 employees, 45million customers a year and a multi-billion-pound balance sheet.
One thing it doesn’t have, however, is a chief technology officer – someone who is there to oversee IT and, in an ideal world, make sure travellers are not left fuming at the check-in gate because of yet another systems meltdown.
Despite its size and the role it plays in the lives of millions of Britons travelling on holiday or for business, BA’s boss Alex Cruz is not even in command of his company’s own IT.
The man in charge is headmaster Willie Walsh, the chief executive of parent company IAG.
He is treating British Airways and its managers like so many schoolchildren. Cruz, in his role as prefect, is being forced to ask nicely for some pocket money to upgrade BA’s old and groaning technology.
This is quite staggering for a company as important as BA.
IT systems are vital at airlines – as they are at virtually any business these days. All are dependent on systems running smoothly – and we have seen the dire consequences when they don’t.
Although BA has come under fire this week for leaving customers in the dark at Heathrow and not providing enough help, it cannot be blamed entirely for the IT crisis.
That has to be laid at the door of Walsh and the firm’s parent company.
The airline is riddled with old systems that have been in place for many years and have become creaky and inefficient. Replacing them without major disruptions is a Herculean job.
Walsh has provided cash for upgrades, but the chaos this week clearly shows it has been too little, too late.
Yet IAG made £2billion in profit last year, so he can afford not to scrimp on the tech at Britain’s flag carrier.
He should give BA the power to make its own decisions on IT investment.
Walsh also needs to be mindful of what has happened elsewhere when parent companies try to exert too tight a grip.
Take the disaster at TSB, which unfolded when the bank was put on a new software platform by its parent company, Sabadell – which is also a Spanish operation.
That ended in catastrophe after millions of customers were locked out of their accounts, with insiders saying British bosses were let down by ‘Spanish numpties’. TSB had to pay £330million in compensation and is taking IT back in-house.
BA is not an independent company any more, but it is our national airline whose successes and failures have an impact on Britain’s reputation in the world.
It is humiliating for a company of this stature to have to take a begging bowl and ask for cash to sort out its systems problems so it can stop inflicting needless misery on its customers.