STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic Planning

Strategic Business Analysis: British Airways plc in 2009

Introduction

British Airways plc provides air services operations both at international and domestic level. Its major business is commercial flight. It also caters to various services like cargo freight, mail services and other auxiliary services all over the world. Mainly it runs its business in United States and Europe. It is situated in Harmondsworth, Middlesex, employing 42,755 people all over. It is emerging to be competitive and sustain its integrity as the best airlines which stress superior customer service. It has 300 destinations throughout the world; this extent of operations offers customers with world-class services at various destinations. Its customers range from explorers to executive. The aim of this report is to enable readers to comprehend strategic review and analysis of British Airways by explaining:

History of British Airways

Current strategic situation

Potential Strategic options

Recommended strategic direction

Identification of critical success factors

Performance measurement criteria

History of British Airways

British Airways which originated as Aircraft Transport and Travel started its maiden daily international scheduled air services between London and Paris after World War 1. In 1939, UK government merged British Airways and Imperial Airways to form British Overseas Airways, which became a state owned company. BOAC's main operation was long haul services and British European Airways was established to serve continental European and domestic market.

Both BOAC and BEA expanded their business geographically over a period of time and BOAC started its flights to New York (1946), Japan (1948), Chicago (1954) and west coast of the US (1957).

At the same time BEA expanded its network to Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester. In 1970, BEA started its charter airline services, BEA air tours. BAOC and BEA were merged together in 1972 under British Airways Board and in 1974 British Airways was formed.

In 1976, British Airways started its first supersonic passenger service jointly with Air France. British Airways was privatised in 1987 and was merged with British Caledonian. In 2002, British Airways CitiExpress was formed by merging British Regional Airlines and Brymon Airways which were wholly owned subsidiaries. Other two wholly owned subsidiaries of British Airways, British Airways Regional and Manx Airlines were also merged with British Airways CitiExpress making it a single entirely owned regional subsidiary airline.

In 2003, British Airways sold Dba, its German subsidiary to a German based low cost airline Verwaltungsgesellschaft. Same year British Airways Holidays introduced its first program after re-integrating with British Airways. In 2004, to clear their debt, British Airways sold their 18.6% of stake in Australian airline Qantas for £1.1billion and also sold their London Eye to Tussauds £95 million.

In 2006, British Airways CitiExpress was renamed as BA Connect and the same year, they sold 14.6% stake in an Indian based business services Provider VVNS Holdings. British Airways also sold its Travel Clinic business to MASTA (Medical Advisory Services for Travellers Abroad).Meanwhile British Airways came to an agreement with Maley Hungarian Airlines for code sharing on each other's flights. They also started a flight from London to Calgary, ...