ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Organizational Performance

Organizational Performance

Brief Description of the Company

British Airways is engaged in the operation of international and domestic scheduled air services for the carriage of passengers, freight and mail and the provision of ancillary services. The company primarily operates in Europe and the Americas region. The company also has its operations spread across Far East Asia, Australia, Africa, Middle East and the Indian sub-continent. At the end of March 2008, the company had 245 aircraft in service, compared to 242 in March 2007. The company divides its business into two segments: airline business and non-airline business. The company's principal base is the Heathrow International Airport, where the company carries an estimated 41% of the airport's passengers. In addition, the company has a second base of operations at Gatwick, London. The company operates offices, maintenance hangars, and other support facilities at Heathrow, Gatwick and other UK airports. The company also occupies space and desks under lease or license in airports throughout the UK including Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

British Airways Delivering Value to Shareholders

The company's wholly owned subsidiary, British Airways CitiExpress was renamed as BA Connect in 2006. In the same year, British Airways and Malev Hungarian Airlines signed an agreement to begin code sharing on each other's flights, in 2006. In the same year, British Airways sold its 14.6% shareholding in the WNS Holdings, an India based business services provider. During the same period, British Airways sold its Travel Clinic business, a provider of travel health treatment business to traveling public, to MASTA (Medical Advisory Services for Travellers Abroad). In the same year, British Airways launched a new service from London (Heathrow) to Calgary in Canada. Also in 2006, British Airways reached an agreement to sell the regional operation of its subsidiary airline BA Connect to Flybe, a European regional airline carrier. During the same period, the company purchased American Airline's stake in Iberia Airlines.

In June 2008, British Airways launched its new subsidiary airline 'OpenSkies', with its first commercial flight from Paris Orly to New York JFK. OpenSkies is the first airline created to take advantage of the EU-US open skies aviation agreement that enables carriers to fly between any destinations in the EU and US. The company will operate daily services between Paris and New York on Boeing 757 aircraft. In July 2008, British Airways purchased French airline L'Avion. L'Avion is expected to operate as a subsidiary of British Airways and become fully integrated with OpenSkies by early 2009. In the same month, British Airways and Iberia, a Spain based airline group, held talks with a view to merge the two companies.

Change in Market Value of Equity

British Airways is a major airline ranking ninth in the world in total number of kilometers flown and the third in international kilometers flown. British Airways specializes in providing transportation in Europe and between Europe and North America. It operates a fleet of 234 airplanes which serve 150 different destinations around the globe, 46% of which are in ...