British Airways

BRITISH AIRWAYS

With a century of flying and serving passengers under its wing, UK’s flag carrier looks ahead powered by Inside Industry

Exclusive Interview Alex Cruz, British Airways Chairman and CEO, reflects on BA’s 100 year milestone and outlines the company’s objective for the new decade and beyond

With a century of flying and serving passengers under its wing, UK’S FLAG CARRIER

LOOKS AHEAD Welcoming Her Majesty The Queen, overseeing huge fleet investments, launching Club Suite and committing to achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050; British Airways’ centenary year in 2019 was far from dull.

Alex Cruz, British Airways Chairman and CEO reflected on BA’s 100-year milestone and looks ahead to what the next 100 years could look like for the airline – and the aviation industry at large. Questions by Daniel Barnes.

British Airways celebrated its 100-year anniversary in August 2019.

Reflecting on the centenary year, what were your personal highlights in how the company, its employees and customers celebrated this remarkable milestone?

We are incredibly proud to have been taking Britain to the world and bringing the world to Britain for the last 100 years. From humble beginnings in 1919, we’ve expanded from flying one small aircraft with one passenger, grouse, Devonshire cream, leather and newspapers, from London to Paris, to operating a fleet of almost 300 aircraft to more than 200 destinations around the world.

We were extremely honoured that Her Majesty The Queen visited us in May to help us mark our centenary. It was a huge pleasure to show Queen Elizabeth the artefacts and memorabilia we have curated over the years, and to introduce her to our passionate teams from all across British Airways who go above and beyond for customers every day. For me, this was the absolute highlight of our centenary year celebrations and something we will all remember for many years to come.

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Exclusive Interview

Alex Cruz, British Airways Chairman and CEO

Alex Cruz, British Airways Chairman and CEO, reflects on BA’s 100 year milestone and outlines the company’s objective for the new decade and beyond

Our BA 2119 programme, which explored what aviation might look like over the next 100 years was another major highlight for me. The programme explored the future of fuels that power aircraft and what the customer experience of the future will look like.

For our BA 2119: Future of Fuels initiative, we partnered with Cranfield University and launched a UK-wide university competition to develop a new sustainable aviation fuel that could power an aircraft for five hours with zero emissions. The quality of the entries was outstanding and a real testament to the great minds we have studying here in the UK. A team from UCL (University College London) were crowned as the winners, and we’ve been working with them to help them gain funding to bring their proposal to life.

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In August we launched BA 2119: Flight of the Future, a first-ofits-kind exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London, looking ahead to the next 100 years of flying and imagining what that may look like. It was based on in-depth global research that we commissioned to identify what aviation could look like in 20 years, 40 years, 60 years and beyond.

The exhibition, in collaboration with the Royal College of Art, explored how future generations will circle the globe in a world of advanced jet propulsion, hyper personalisation, automation, AI, modular transport, sustainability, health and entertainment. The exhibition also included a virtual reality experience that allowed visitors to become a time-travelling pilot, from the earliest imaginings of Leonardo da Vinci and his ornithopter right through to our brand

new A350 and the imagined flight of future. The exhibition was a huge success, and really pushed the boundaries of imagination and explored how we, and future generations, will travel the globe.

February 2020 will see the first Boeing 787-10 for British Airways enter service, debuting on the London Heathrow to Atlanta route. What impact are you hoping the new aircraft will have on BA’s long-haul offering? What other routes are earmarked for this aircraft?

Our long-haul fleet is constantly evolving as we make real strides with our fleet renewal.

The delivery of our first 787-10 aircraft marks another significant milestone in our £6.5 billion customer investment plan. It’s the newest, longest member of the 787 family, offering greater comfort to customers and efficiency as it offers a 25% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to the aircraft it replaces – another important step towards our commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The aircraft also has a carbon fibre fuselage which allows the pressure to be maintained at a lower level in the cabin. The internal cabin altitude is the equivalent of 6,000ft, offering a better level of humidity, reducing the drying effect of the cabin air, so customers will arrive at their destinations feeling more refreshed.

In addition, customers will benefit from the latest generation seats in all cabins, including our newest First seat, which is already available on our 787-9 aircraft, and our recently unveiled business class seat Club Suite.

We plan to take delivery of 12 787-10 Dreamliner’s, with six arriving in 2020. Atlanta is the first route to be served by the aircraft, and additional routes include Dallas and Seattle.

As you know we have recently started taking delivery of our A350 aircraft, and have a total of 18 on order, which are up to 40% more fuel-efficient than the aircraft they replace.

What additional benefits can passengers expect with Club Suite when compared to BA’s traditional business class offering?

The launch of Club Suite has been a fantastic development for us and is a major part of our Club World investment. Club Suite offers direct-aisle access, a suite door for greater privacy and luxurious flat-bed seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. It has 40% more storage, including a vanity unit and mirror, WiFi, 18.5-inch inflight entertainment screens, high definition gate-to-gate programming, and PC / USB power. Every aspect of our Club Suite has been designed for today’s customer.

Customers can experience Club Suite on all of our A350 routes to destinations including Tel Aviv, Bangalore and Toronto. We’ve also reconfigured our first 777-200 with the new Club Suite cabin, British Airways

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Exclusive Interview Alex Cruz, British Airways Chairman and CEO, reflects on BA’s 100 year milestone and outlines the company’s objective for the new decade and beyond

with more 777s with Club Suite cabins due to be entering service over the coming months. We intend to complete the Heathrow rollout of this fantastic business class product by 2025, although it will be on over 90% of our long-haul aircraft by 2023.

Reflecting on 2019, what areas of BA’s business performed particularly well?

Our £6.5 billion investment for our customers is well underway and we are starting to see its positive impact.

On top of taking delivery of our A350 aircraft, and launching Club Suite, we’ve revealed new bedding, dining and amenity kits for First and World Traveller Plus, we’ve launched successful partnerships with British brands like the White Company and Alice Temperley and partnered with hospitality experts Do&Co and Newrest, providing the highest quality fresh food on our flights across all cabins.

In addition, we have built up our largest network in more than a decade, launching more than a dozen new routes last year alone.

We have the best punctuality of the five major short-haul airlines from London and we offer competitive fares across all cabins.

We are also making sure digital technology is at the heart of our operation. We are investing in tools to create a more seamless and efficient journey for customers including self-service check-in and bag drop kiosks, plus facial recognition technology at Heathrow which enables us to board domestic (UK) flights – so far – in half the usual time. We’re also trialling autonomous vehicles and AI in our airside operation.

In aviation, change takes time and there’s much more work to do, but I am delighted to be seeing improving satisfaction levels from customers.

What areas of improvement have been targeted for 2020 and beyond?

Sustainability is a huge focus for us. We know that air travel continues to grow, but we also know that our future has to be sustainable. We are determined to play our part to reduce aviation’s environmental impact and our parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), became the first airline group worldwide to commit to achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. To solve such a multi-faceted issue requires a multi-faceted response and in addition to our own initiatives, there must be a global solution.

Starting this year, British Airways’ carbon emissions on international flights will be capped under a worldwide carbon pricing scheme called CORSIA, (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation). Along with many other airlines, we will reduce our emissions by investing in a diverse range of projects around the world. Since 2012 when the EU introduced emissions reduction regulations, British Airways has reduced emissions on 6

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European flights by more than eight million tonnes – around 40% on every European flight.

In January 2020 we began offsetting carbon emissions on all flights within the UK. This means that all customers flying within the UK on flights operated by British Airways will have the carbon emissions from their flights offset by the airline and invested in verified carbon reduction projects around the world.

We are leading the way in sustainable fuels development. IAG has invested $400 million in sustainable fuels development over the next 20 years and we have signed a partnership with renewal fuels company, Velocys, to build a plant in Lincolnshire which will convert household and commercial waste into renewable sustainable jet fuel to power our fleet, a first for the UK and the first time an airline has done this in Europe.

BA has maintained its long-standing reputation of employing the most experienced crew in the air and on the ground. In total, how many apprenticeships does BA offer annually, and what advice would you give to youngsters that are currently considering a future in the industry?

We are committed to encouraging young people to join the aviation industry. Key to this is showing youngsters from an early age that a career in the aviation industry is something that they can and should aspire to. We offer an award-winning apprenticeship programme, graduate scheme, business placement programme and we are introducing a paid internship programme for 2020 – the first in the industry.

Our comprehensive apprenticeship programme is spread across three different business areas – Operations, Customer Service and Head Office, and provides apprentices with practical training in a real-world environment. We offer the UK’s largest cabin crew apprenticeship scheme, which has proved to be extremely popular and gives apprentices the opportunity to play a massive role in creating the unique British Airways experience that customers love. Our engineering apprenticeship is also hugely popular and allows apprentices to develop the skills to maintain our full fleet of aircraft.

Last year we also hosted more young people on work experience than ever before, with 600 students completing a week-long placement across 25 departments – including engineering and flight operations, as well as at British Airways’ Head Office. This summer we will become the first UK airline to offer paid internships in data analytics and leadership.

Through our partnership with KidZania we’re committed to showing children, especially girls, that a career as a pilot, aircraft engineer or other STEM-related role is open to them and we host

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Exclusive Interview Alex Cruz, British Airways Chairman and CEO, reflects on BA’s 100 year milestone and outlines the company’s objective for the new decade and beyond

regular engineering open evenings and Future Flying events to give young people the opportunity to explore the opportunities available to them in the future. This year we are once again funding free flying lessons for children.

We’re constantly investing in new and innovative ways to engage with young people, we recently launched a dedicated website (https://connectr.co.uk/britishairways) to help support youngsters into a career with British Airways, and we will continue to inspire the next generation that a career in aviation, be it a pilot, cabin crew or engineer is an achievable career ambition and with determination, they can succeed.

What routes proved most popular in 2019 and what new routes does the company plan to launch in the foreseeable future?

We listen to our customers and are always looking to expand our route network to destinations they tell us they want to fly to. We’re operating our largest network in more than a decade. We launched five new long-haul routes in 2019 including Osaka, Pittsburgh, Charleston, Islamabad and Dammam and have just announced that we’ll be flying to Portland later this year.

Our Osaka route takes the number of daily flights between London and Japan offered as part of British Airways’ joint business with Japan Airlines up to 32 per week. Islamabad is our first service between the UK and Pakistan in 10 years and we are the only airline flying direct between Europe and Charleston.

If we look at the US, in addition to launching our two new US routes into Charleston and Pittsburgh, we launched flights to Nashville the year before and New Orleans in 2017. This takes the 8

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number of US destinations we currently fly to from London up to 29 and the number of daily flights offered by British Airways and our partner American Airlines as part of our transatlantic joint business, up to around 73 per day.

To add to this, we’ve also added new routes to our short-haul network to destinations including Bastia, Preveza, Montpellier, Split, Ljubljana, Lyon, Hamburg, Kos and Munich. This summer our customers can also look forward to flying to six new European destinations including the Kosovan and Montenegrin capitals, Pristina and Podgorica, Perugia in Italy, Dalaman and Bodrum in Turkey and the Greek Island of Rhodes.

As you would expect, we’re always looking for opportunities that make both commercial sense and sense for our customers.

We’re always reviewing our long-haul and short-haul network to ensure we’re serving cities and destinations our customers want to fly to and we’ll introduce these where it makes sense.

The airline is taking delivery of 73 new aircraft over the next five years including four new types for the British Airways fleet: the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787-10 and 777-9 for long-haul and the A320 and 321neos for short-haul. What latest updates on this new build programme can you share with us?

We are investing in 73 more fuel-efficient, quieter aircraft over the next five years including A350s, 787s, 777-9s and A320neo and A321neos.

We currently operate 30 787 aircraft and have recently started taking delivery of our A350 aircraft. As I mentioned earlier, we’re excited to be welcoming the state-of-the-art 787-10 to our fleet in

February. This aircraft, along with the A350 marks a significant and exciting milestone in our investment programme.

We will take delivery of 18 A350’s in total, 12 787-10 Dreamliner’s, with six arriving this year, and later our Boeing 777-9 aircraft. These will replace some of our Boeing 747s and 777s, with all Boeing 747s due to retire by February 2024.

On board we’re also investing in fast, reliable WiFi across our fleet and most of our aircraft have now been fitted with this.

British Airways is also fitting out 128 of its long-haul aircraft with new interiors. Apart from the standard ‘freshening up’ that such works typically entail, can passengers expect any new features onboard these aircraft?

We have given significant focus to the food we serve in every cabin and have introduced meals designed by luxury hospitality experts Do&Co across all cabins from Heathrow, providing the highest quality fresh food, and have received fantastic feedback from our customers on our menus.

The new food on long-haul economy has an expanded new menu, which provides more quantity and quality to both meals and snacking options for our customers travelling in World Traveller.

We also recently revamped our Club World dining experience, introducing new menus with improved recipes and signature warm breads. There’s also a commitment to provenance, with dishes developed around key British ingredients.

On flights to and from Gatwick, we have invested in our catering offering and have reimagined and improved our food across both our long and short haul cabins. This includes new dishes, recipes and menus designed by global catering experts Newrest, who are working closely with suppliers in the south of England to source the best quality ingredients.

Our customers tell us that when they’re taking a flight, great food and beverages make a real difference to them. It’s a huge driver of customer satisfaction so we want to make sure we deliver a great experience.

Our latest generation First suites have been meticulously designed based on our customers’ feedback. The cabin puts comfort at the heart of the experience and makes the very best use of the more intimate space. The suite includes a fixed 23-inch high definition inflight entertainment screen that can be controlled with a handset that is integrated into the seat, and from which customers can change channels or watch the moving map.

In addition to our new Club Suite, we’ve worked hard to ensure every aspect of the Club World experience – from the lounges we’ve refreshed, to the new gourmet menus on our flights, and the luxurious bedding we’ve introduced from The White Company – exudes the very British style and quality customers expect from us.

At Gatwick, our fleet has been refurbished, including our Boeing 777 aircraft with new cabins that look and feel brand new. We’ve received great feedback, with customers telling us they’re really enjoying the new cabins and entertainment systems.

We’ve also introduced new furnishings and a range of new amenities for customers in World Traveller Plus, our premium economy cabin, including a plush new pillow and a warm quilt, new dining and amenity kits and a large TV screen, offering customers an enhanced in-flight experience.

From economy to à la carte, airline dining is constantly evolving and improving. What are the BA chefs working on to raise this level even further across the board?

Finally, is there any new or upcoming technology within the industry that BA is particularly excited by?

Artificial intelligence is a big part of our future. We are making significant advancements using AI to transform the customer journey.

We have a fantastic team of data scientists and AI specialists working on a number of initiatives. For example, we are working with technology start-up Assaia. Its intelligent software captures on video every moment from when an aircraft arrives at the airport to its departure, helping airline workers to see the numerous tasks going on around the aircraft and alerting them to issues that could delay the flight’s departure.

We are also trialling driverless vehicles at Heathrow so that in the future the luggage of customers travelling on flights from Terminal 5 will be driven from baggage belts to aircraft on driverless baggage trucks, speeding up the delivery of bags. AI will be integral to transforming the future travel experience and we are very excited about it. n

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