Sign of the times ...recommends industry activists to review this abridged/highlighted clip from Air and Business Travel News...it highlights key points from Willie Walsh's speech when travel idustry leaders gathered in London last week.
(Posted 21 Jun,2010)
BA ready to expand in North America -17 Jun 2010— by Stanley Slaughter
BA is ready to expand its network in North America, ceo Willie Walsh said today (June 17).
He said it was "only a matter of time" before the UK national carrier flew to two or three more North American cities.
Walsh said he was also being "pushed" by corporate customers to fly more services from London City Airport.
This would be either more capacity on the existing twice daily service to New York or new routes to cities like Boston, Chicago and Washington.
In a key note speech at the Business Travel Market in London, Walsh said the feedback on the all business class service to New York, which began late last year, had been "fantastic".
"I am surprised at how quickly it has established itself among corporate customers. But the challenge at London City is the length of the runway.
"Realistically it is only possible to fly to the east coast of the USA - Boston, Chicago, Washington. But we are being pushed to fly to more destinations.
"If the good response continues, we will definitely be adding additional services, either more capacity to New York or services to new cities."
Earlier in his speech, Walsh said BA had been ready to add more North American cities to its network but had been stopped by the onset of the recession.
He also rejected any idea that BA would withdraw from short haul operations.
He said short haul was an integral part of the business and "20 years from now we shall still have short haul, primarily focused at Heathrow, maintaining a strong presence and looking for opportunities to expand."
Walsh said the priority for BA and the airline industry was to return to profit.
"The industry has really suffered its terms of its financial position in the last few years. We need to get this industry back on an even keel, generating a level of profitability and investment."
"The industry can't go on the way it has gone on. Access to finance for new aircraft has become incredibly difficult.
"In the short term we need to get back to profit and in the medium term return to the level of profit to enable investment. We need to get a change to our costs while at the same time maintaining our levels of service.
"This is not easy but definitely it can be achieved. But to do it, we must overcome an $80bn fall in revenue and overcome oil at $80 a barrel. But we are still in business and I am now confident and optimistic that the model works."
He told the packed auditorium that he was also confident the airline would resolve its difficulties with its cabin crew.
But he said that if further strike action took place, he was 100% confident that BA would fly more services than during the previous three five day stoppages.
Walsh said he expected to fly 100% of long haul services during any future strike.
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