Reportedly up to one million passengers could be affected by the British Airways’ (BA) announcement of a possible 12-day strike staged by cabin crew over the Christmas period (between 22 December 2009 and 2 January 2010).
The announcement heralds the start of battle of wills between two parties played out on the world stage – with the public acting as judge and jury over which party – airline or union – gains the greatest brand empathy.
In the blue corner – British Airways
In the first round, judging by the initial public reaction, the action appeared to be a massive brand public relations disaster for the airline which has already reportedly lost £292m during the first half of the year.
Possible scenes of passengers grounded over the emotive Christmas season, rather than reunited with friends and family, could turn out to be the one chip on the airline’s brand heritage that finally causes the entire brand perception image to split.
In the UK, one eminent travel reporter on TV – Simon Calder dramatically ripped his BA ticket booked for a Christmas break, suggesting that any chances of getting a replacement flight at this stage were virtually ruled out.
Reportedly some analysts suggest that the strike could cost BA about £10 million a day. Add the proposed industrial action to other relatively recent problems such the Terminal Five disaster, along with alleged poor investments in new sub-brands and operations, and that figure may, over the longer term become even more inflated.
Striking back a skillful public relations brand punch, British Airways says, they are “currently reworking our flight schedules for the strike period and aim to announce them as quickly as possible”.
The airline has already announced that passengers booked to fly during the 12-day strike, or the 48 hours before or after, can change their trip to another date in the next 12 months at no additional cost.
However, for many that may simply not be good enough. (They would have planned to be with loved ones for the festive period – rather than perhaps April 1st 2010).
In red corner – Unite
The proposed action is being planned by members of the Unite union over “significant contractual changes” on cabin crew employees, resulting in extended working hours, and reduced wages for new starters.
Unite says that cut backs will affect the brand’s reputation for excellent service in the skies, as well as make it just another value-branded no-frills airline – with passengers having to pay for extras such as meals.
However, from a brand perception view, British Airways could still turn opinion around by pointing any fingers of accusation firmly at the direction of Unite.
A company statement said:
“Unite’s cynical decision betrays a total lack of concern for our customers, our business and other employees within British Airways.”
With many people having to face cut backs during the current economic slump, the public could view Unite’s actions as unrealistic – after all so many are having to accept working compromises – why shouldn’t BA staff follow suit?
Indeed many of the British press are taking that stance.
The Daily Telegraph accused them of cynically using the airline’s passengers to blackmail the management.
The Daily Mirror urged both sides to “roll up their sleeves and start talking”.
The Sun said that the unemployed will find it hard to understand why people on such relatively good money would want to strike.
Lack of united support for the union
The entire action may back-fire on Unite in other ways too: Firstly many may argue that competitive airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, reportedly pay their staff less than British Airways – yet the brand experience in the sky is often equal – if not better than that of BA. (A cheerful smile from a steward doesn’t cost money).
Worse still for Unite, the proposed action may encourage BA to consider making some of their staff contract workers – as practiced by some competitive airlines.
On the other hand, rumblings of industrial unrest have reportedly been going on for some time at British Airways. So many may wonder why better forward-planning was not already in place – a case of “hope for the best, plan for the worse”.
If British Airways manages somehow to reassign passengers onto other flights – they could pull off a PR branding coup - a kind of weird Goliath beats David scenario and comes out the hero.
However, at this point in the brand perception bout – the final KO has still to be thrown before any backroom spin doctors finally throw in the towel.
www.brandforensics.co.uk
Late breaking
To add to the general woes of the airline industry, The Times reports that airlines will suffer bigger-than-expected losses of $5.6 billion (£3.5 billion) next year it emerged today as British Airways (BA) faced-up to a multi-million pound bill from a planned 12-day strike by its cabin crew.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that rising fuel costs would contribute to the already gloomy outlook for airlines in 2010.
The IATA’s upward revision of losses, from its previously forecast loss of $3.8 billion (£2.3 billion), comes despite an expected increase in passenger demand.
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 9:06 amand is filed under ba brand, Brand expert, Branding, British airways christmas strike, British brands, terminal five. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
January 8th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Did you hear about what happened with the Eurotrain services? They had problems because of the snow too, although the services were only reduced, not cancelled. I got back from holiday yesterday and we had taken the Eurotrain, so we missed the trouble.
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:46 am
Who ever wrote this artcile really knew what they were talking about.