So what is BA going to do about leg room, then?
John Arlidge asks British Airways’ CEO Sean Doyle your burning questions on cost-cutting, queues… and free G&Ts
Tomorrow morning, Sean Doyle, the boss of British Airways, will board flight BA001 from Heathrow to New York’s JFK. It’s not Concorde – even though it has the supersonic jet’s old flight number – but the sevenhour run across the pond is more important than any that Speedbird 1 made. “It’s a massive milestone,” Doyle says. That’s because tomorrow marks the return of “normal” air travel to the US for British passengers. A lateral-flow test is all fully-vaccinated UK travellers will need. But will passengers go?
As you, our Telegraph readers know – often to your cost – BA was having a tough time even before the pandemic. Many passengers vowed to fly “abba” (anyone but British Airways) because years of cost-cutting under Doyle’s predecessor, Alex Cruz, had left it little more than a budget carrier.
Doyle is determined to make a fresh start. “We need to be premium in everything we do,” he says. “We are investing to be premium.”
That includes bringing back free food in short-haul economy – although only a snack and a mini bottle of water. Cruz axed all free food and drink. The move is prompting some to wonder whether a free cuppa in the morning and a cheeky G&T in the evening might also return. Alas, no. “We’re very happy with what we’re offering, so we’ve no plans to change it,” Doyle says. If you want to kick-start the day or take the edge off it, you will have to use the BA app to order online before take-off.
CAN I STRETCH MY LEGS?
When it comes to legroom, BA’s shorthaul economy cabins have become indistinguishable from those of its budget-carrier competitors, many of you say. Cruz even removed lavatories on some short-haul jets to cram in more seats. Doyle acknowledges cost savings have been made in short-haul economy, but argues that it allows BA to compete with Ryanair and easyJet on price, while “operating from primary airports, with the best schedules, the best timings, the right aircraft and places you want to fly to directly with better connectivity, lounges, fast track and all the other things that make BA’s offer better”.
Another bugbear for many of you has been having to pay to check in a bag. Doyle insists the recently introduced cheaper hand baggage-only fares are welcomed by travellers.
“It has been very popular.” But to avoid confusion, which can mean some travellers buy the wrong ticket and end up having to pay extra when they get to the airport, he says BA will in future “be clearer that you can buy a fare with a check-in bag included – or you can buy one without”.
Some Telegraph travellers question the need for Club Europe. One complains that it just “makes for annoyed queues of people at the airport waiting for a few others to board first”.
However, Doyle insists it is an important part of his plan to re-establish BA as a premium brand. “Business and, increasingly, leisure travellers love the service, the all-inclusive nature of it, and the privacy,” he says.
ANY NEW ROUTES?
Doyle has good news about BA’s longhaul route network. After lockdown, the airline stopped flying from Britain direct to Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Abu Dhabi, Osaka, St Petersburg, Beirut, Muscat, Calgary, Pittsburgh, Charleston and the Seychelles. Many assumed those routes had been permanently axed, but Doyle says: “They’re merely suspended and some may be back soon. I want to get back to growing.”
And there is more good news for safari lovers. Some speculated that BA’s Nairobi service would end, but Doyle is strengthening it by committing to daily flights and also announcing a codeshare agreement with Kenya Airways, one of Africa’s best carriers.
“It’s an opportunity to secure our
Doyle acknowledges that cost savings have had to be made in short-haul economy
business in East Africa,” he says. Now that the clocks have gone back and winter is setting in, he has the look of a man who would relish a break in Zanzibar.
WHAT WILL CLUB LOOK LIKE?
Those lucky enough to be able to afford to fly business class long-haul will enjoy the snazzy new Club suite that replaces the dated “back to front” business class. It will be on all jets by 2024-25, starting with the Airbus A350, Boeing 787s and 777s, and lastly the Airbus A380 superjumbo. Unlike Air France, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways, which are dumping the A380 because they say the fourengine 550-seater is too thirsty to make economic or environmental sense, Doyle is committed to BA’s 12 A380s, which are very popular with passengers, who love the large cabins and sense of space.
“They work for us because we operate from a slot-constrained airport – Heathrow.” Can the behemoth be profitable? “It generates returns for us – yes.”
There is also good news for fans of premium economy (or World Traveller Plus, as BA calls it). The cabin between economy and business on long-haul aircraft is expanding “from 26 seats to up to 46 on new jets”, and will soon come with “new seats, with additional privacy and more storage for personal belongings”. However, Doyle has no plans to follow Virgin Atlantic and create a new “economy delight” class by adding a few inches of legroom to the first rows of the economy cabin.
There is less good news for the 0.1 per cent. First class will be removed from some routes – Doyle cites South America and “pockets of Africa” – and on jets that do retain it, the cabin will be eight seats, not 14. Airlines often lose money in first class and only retain it as a “halo” product.
CAN I TRUST YOU AGAIN?
BA has suffered hugely damaging IT failures over the past few years – including an outage that grounded all flights worldwide, and a vast hack of customers’ data, with full credit-card details. Any of our readers who were affected by this will know the large dent this has put in consumer trust. Doyle is committed to “modernising and upgrading all our systems. It’s a huge focus for us”. Later this month, the airline’s executive club will go offline for four days, “so we can put in a whole new IT system”.
Sometimes you do need to talk to someone and Doyle acknowledges that many customers have found it infuriatingly hard to get in touch with BA’s call centres. “We’re boosting our resources in our contact centres. We brought people back early. We’re recruiting new staff. Is it where we’d like it to be? It isn’t. We understand people are frustrated and we appreciate their patience.”
Many Telegraph readers complain about cold “computer says no” service from BA staff on the ground and in the air. Doyle is investing heavily in staff training “to recover warmth. You’ve got to have compassion, especially with a brand like BA that has a strong emotional relationship with its customers. That is going to be more important than ever coming out of this crisis.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
One area that often infuriates travellers is Heathrow, which has been slow to adjust to changing travel regulations during the pandemic, often causing long queues at arrivals. Europe’s busiest airport is way behind Middle Eastern hubs when it comes to facial-recognition technology that replaces the need to show your passport, and new security scanners that remove the necessity for passengers to take laptops and liquids out of their hand luggage. BA is not responsible for Heathrow, but Doyle says: “We are trialling biometrics and always looking to improve automation. You will see that develop over the coming years.”
In spite of concerns about the environmental cost of flying – which BA is addressing by investing in sustainable aircraft fuel, and more fuel-efficient aircraft – the Cork-born CEO thinks demand will grow as global travel restrictions ease and BA will be back to flying the 47.7 million passengers it flew in 2019 by 2024. By that time, BA will have the same number of seats in its fleet as it had in 2019. It is buying new Airbus and Boeing long-haul jets to make up for the 31 747 jumbo jets it scrapped last year, part of a £6.5bn investment programme approved before the pandemic. All the moves are bearing fruit, if the latest airline rankings are anything to go by. BA moved up the Skytrax best-airline index from 19th in 2019 to 11th this year.
Tomorrow’s flight to New York will – unusually – be a joint celebration with Virgin Atlantic, BA’s arch-rival. Virgin’s VS3 flight will take off on Heathrow’s second runway at exactly the same time as BA001. The two jets will then fly in parallel to JFK. “Over the past 18 months, I’ve done things with people I thought I’d never do. Co-operation in a crisis like Covid is vital,” says Doyle. But then he pauses and adds that the moment the two jets land in JFK: “It will be back to competition, taking on each other as usual. It will be intense.”
If that results in a better start to our holidays, then bring it on.
Many customers have found it infuriatingly hard to get in touch with BA’s call centres