The airline's Chairman and CEO Sean Doyle outlined his modernisation plan at a recent showcase that will see the airline try to regain its former reputation of delivering a world-class customer experience. The new plan will also see the company modernizing its crumpled IT systems, work on sustainability issues and drive up on-time performance.
Sean Doyle, British Airways Chairman and CEO, commented: “We’re on a journey to a better BA for our people and for our customers, underpinned by a transformation programme that will see us invest £7bn over the next two years to revolutionise our business".
Doyle continued: “We’re going to take delivery of new aircraft, introduce new cabins, elevate our customer care, focus on operational performance and address our environmental impact by reducing our emissions and creating a culture of sustainability. We’re also heavily investing in the development of a new ba.com website and app and are laser-focused on transforming our business and fixing any pain points for our customers.”
Long gone are the days of 'The World's favourite airline' when BA was a global brand epitomising quality, style and premium levels of service. A series of strikes, high-profile data breaches, massive IT failures, in-flight service cuts, staff morale issues and mismanagement have all taken their toll on the carrier.
Ba.com and app
British Airways has confirmed plans to overhaul its digital user experience with a new ba . com website and mobile app which it says will offer deeper personalisation. The new website is already in BETA testing mode with platforms designed to offer a range of new services, including allowing customers to self-serve if they wish, taking control of and making changes to their journeys online, in keeping with other major airlines' websites and systems. BA says the initial changes will start to roll out by the end of the year.
WiFi enhancements for customers
In-flight WiFi is increasingly popular with passengers, with many seeing it as a prerequisite in their choice of airline, therefore, from 3rd April, British Airways Executive Club Members will start to be able to send messages free of charge on a single device using the airline’s WiFi - whatever cabin they’re travelling in. The service will be available on every WiFi-enabled aircraft within two weeks of the rollout date*.
*WiFi is available on all of the airline’s Gatwick fleet and more than 80 per cent of British Airways’ Heathrow fleet, rolling out to 100 per cent by the end of 2025.
The airline has also become the first to offer a WiFi-enabled inflight customer care solution to solve issues in the moment – even at 35,000ft. Created especially for British Airways by Microsoft, customer care teams on the ground are now able to connect with cabin crew colleagues across more than 300 flights a day. The functionality allows the crew to help solve any unexpected issues before a flight lands at one of the airline’s more than 200 destinations.
AI implementation
BA said it plans to invest £100m in AI & machine learning, automation all the way through the company. It says these moves will drive improvements from bookings to baggage handling and help to revolutionise its operation, speed up departures and respond to disruption.
Innovative new tools are helping to predict delays (prompting pre-emptive action to reduce disruption) and analyse real-time weather, aircraft capacity and customer connections data to help teams make better decisions. Since the introduction of the systems, alongside a number of new processes and ways of working, the airline has seen improvement to its on-time departures.
The airline is also investing £750m in its IT infrastructure to move 700 systems and thousands of servers to the cloud by early next year.
British Airways has also started to create around 350 roles at its home base, London Heathrow which will, it hopes, improve the level of services customers experience. The airline is investing in new equipment, such as baggage tugs and towing vehicles.
New lounge design concept
New cabins and seats
New short-haul seats
Club Europe seats will see the return of the bespoke leather tray that sits between the aisle and window seat. All Club Europe seats will also be fitted with USB-A & USB-C power (60W) backrest-mounted charging ports, while the Euro Traveller seats will be fitted with USB-A & USB-C (15W) backrest-mounted charging ports.
Investment in First
British Airways is the only European carrier to offer First Class between the UK and US and the carrier seeks to capitalize on this with the introduction of a brand-new and exclusive First suite. BA believes the new seat will come into service at the end of 2025 into early 2026 as part of its Airbus A380 aircraft refurbishment.
The Heathrow - New York JFK route has, for many years been the airline's most lucrative route, it is also the 8th busiest route in the world with nearly 3.9 million seats on offer last year. Between April 2018 and 2019, BA earned over $1.15 billion from this route alone.
New Routes
The airline is bringing back services from London to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur from this October and November respectively. BA will operate daily flights between the Malaysian capital city and London Heathrow on a 787-9 aircraft, as well as three flights a week between the Thai capital and London Gatwick on a 777-200ER.
Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) from London Gatwick (LGW) All times are local This is a winter-only route | ||||||
Route | Flight number | Departing | Arriving | Date | Days in Operation | Aircraft |
LGW - BKK | BA2231 | 21:00 | 15:55+1 | 28/10/2024 | 1,4 and 6 | 777-200ER |
BKK - LGW | BA2230 | 22:55 | 05:30+1 | 29/10/2024 | 2,5 and 7 | 777-200ER |
The Boeing 777-200ER 3-cabin aircraft with the following configuration: 32 Club, 48 World Traveller Plus, and 252 World Traveller will operate the route. The service starts on 28th October.
Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) from London Heathrow (LHR) All times are local | ||||||
Route | Flight number | Departing | Arriving | Date | Days in Operation | Aircraft |
LHR - KUL | BA33 | 20:45 | 17:30+1 | 10/11/24 | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 | 787-9 |
KUL - LHR | BA34 | 23:20 | 05:35+1 | 11/11/24 | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 | 787-9 |
Return flights from London Heathrow (LHR) to Kuala Lumpur International Airport will be on Boeing 787-9 aircraft that feature 4 cabins with the following configuration: 8 First, 42 Club, 39 World Traveller Plus, and 127 World Traveller. This route starts on 10th November.
British Airways is also returning to Abu Dhabi on April 20, as well as welcoming Agadir in Morrocco on March 31 and adding Izmir in Turkey to its network on May 18.
Sustainability
Through the BA Better World programme and its commitment to People, Planet, and Responsible Business, British Airways continues to innovate to drive continual improvement in its environmental, social, and governance business performance and meet its net zero target by 2050 or sooner. The company says 'taking significant and urgent action to address aviation’s impacts is critical to make the industry much more sustainable in the long term.'
Last week the airline’s parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG) announced its largest SAF purchase agreement to date with e-SAF (power-to-liquid) producer ‘Twelve’, which will supply advanced e-SAF made from carbon dioxide, water and renewable energy to support IAG’s five European airlines, including British Airways. The next-generation fuel will reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% versus conventional jet fuel. IAG is the first European airline group to announce an e-SAF deal, and the agreement will enable it to continue increasing its SAF use towards the goal of 10% by 2030.
