Day-To-Day Activities
At British Airways there are various departments and each department is responsible for carrying out their own activities to ensure the day-to-day activities are planned and run efficiently and effectively. The following are some examples of British Airways day-to-day activities:
Planning Department – this department is responsible for planning British Airways fleet, network, schedule, infrastructure, resources and property. Then planning department identify which routes and frequencies to fly, and where to deploy the fleet. (Internet site 1).
Operating Control – is responsible for the day-to-day control of British Airways operations, and their emergency and contingency planning. The area includes a number of specialists who work together to cover all aspects of the 24 hour, 365 days a year operation this includes flight crew controllers, cabin crew controllers, aircraft controllers. Customer service controllers and planners. (Internet site 1).
Distribution & Mileage partnerships – are responsible for ensuring that customers can book, pay and ticket a booking through the British Airways website. They are also responsible for setting the company’s distribution and booking channel strategy to deliver more bookings through the website and reduce the cost of sale to British Airways. (Internet site 1 ).
Marketing Communications Department – are in charge of the advertising and promotions process and are also responsible for the manifestation of the British Airways brand in the market place and they provide the company with insights into customer needs, expectations, satisfaction and behaviour. This is managed through a programme of continuous and ad hoc market research and data analysis. (Internet site 1).
Operating Procedures
A British Airways flight takes off every 90 seconds on average and is the worlds largest international airline operator. British Airways head quarters is at London Heathrow airport and in there is a department of operations control , this department handles the 7 days prior to take-off for long haul flights, 3 days prior to take-off for short haul flights.
Operations control are also responsible for managing the knock-on effects of any delays, shortages or disruptions. They are in charge of every flight until it has landed. (Slack et al, 1998).
QUALITY
At British Airways the local air quality issues are becoming more of a concern and are often cited as the limiting factor in the growth of airports. (Internet site 4).
British Airways is aiming to reduce the air quality impact of their operations and are to ensure that emissions affecting the local air quality are managed in a balanced way to achieve national standards. (Internet site 4). To achieve this British Airways will work with other stakeholders to develop voluntary measures to improve the local air quality, and will ensure that new guidance for air quality modelling around airports correctly represents aircraft operations.
One of British Airways environmental objective is to minimise waste, there are a wide range of waste regulations which apply to British Airways, the company holds 3 waste management licences and there has not been any breaches of the licence. (Ayling, 1999).
At an increasing number of airlines, measuring quality of service is just part of the overall quality management system. Measuring quality is all about identifying customer needs assessing level of satisfaction and taking action when necessary.
Total Quality Management is now considered to be a key element in many airline services. (Graham, 2003).
British Airways has adopted a quality process based on European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).
Benchmarking
British Airways believe that taking regular check ups is essential for good health. In order to be where you want to be tomorrow, you must know where you are at today, and where you were yesterday. (Internet site 5).
British Airways is also committed to the proposition that where their benchmarking shows that it needs improving, British Airways will ensure that resources are made available to do that, functional and generic benchmarking are now being used at British Airways for process improvement. (Internet site 5).
Awards & Recognition
British Airways have won many awards and have done a great deal of charity work which they have been recognised for such as:
Race for life – British Airways won a cancer research UK race for life award in 2003 for ‘outstanding support by a company’, this award was given for the outstanding support, commitment and contributions that employees had made over the past ten years. (Internet site 3).
The British Airways giving scheme – in 2003/04, 4,500 British Airways current and retired employees contributed £638,624 to charities through the payroll scheme.
Change for good – British Airways have raised over £17 million and funded UNICEF programmes in over 50 countries around the world. (Internet site 6).
Training
The training department at British Airways has supported the Employee Involvement programme by providing coaching for managers on the principles of effective communication. The objective is to give managers the skills and confidence to engage people in understanding British Airways business plan. Mandatory and operational training also takes place to equip employees with the skills to deliver a safe and efficient operation.
Feedback
Customer satisfaction and the opinion of all the stakeholders is the key to defining British Airways success. British Airways needs to understand its stakeholders, customers and employees to form better business decisions.
Customer satisfaction is monitored by a comprehensive and detailed ongoing survey, the GPM (Global Performance Monitor) which measures reaction to all aspects of British Airways service. (Internet site 1).
British Airways feel it is important for them to understand what customers think of their products and services in different markets, on different routes and at different airports at different times of the day.
British Airways believe it is important to share customer feedback as widely in order to maintain focus on customers. Results are available on the intranet, in the British Airways research library. British Airways has also advised departments on setting targets for customer satisfaction performance in order to improve service delivery and where downfalls are identified action is taken to address the issue.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Facilities
British Airways offer many facilities to their customers when flying, some of the facilities which they offer are:
First – this is for customers who are travelling in the first cabin, passengers are assured of the highest standard of service. Customers on-board have the comfort and privacy they require and they can also enjoy the in-flight entertainment or dine from the ala carte menu. (Internet site 1).
Club World – this on-board facility provides passengers level of comfort, privacy and personal space and there is also in flight entertainment featuring movies, news and documentaries.
Club Europe – is a service which is provided for short haul destinations, this facility allows customers to check-in and print out their boarding cards themselves allowing them to bypass airport check in completely.
World Cargo – British Airways is one of the top 10 leading cargo airlines in the world and at the heart of British Airways world cargo global network is Ascentis, the cargo handling facility at London Heathrow airport, Ascentis was designed to provide British Airways world cargo with the most efficient operational environment for cargo handling. (Internet site 1).
Yield Management
British Airways uses Business Objects, a integrated query, reporting and online analytical processing tool to access, analyse and share information stored in British Airways data warehouse. (Internet site 7).
Every airline has to achieve a balance between availability of higher priced business seats and filling the flight with cheaper leisure fares. British Airways is using Business Objects to analyse customer behaviour and flight sales to maximise yield on each route. Business Objects allows British Airways to understand bookings and customer profiles and use that information to maximise yield on each flight by creating the right promotional offer to each customer group. (Internet site 7).
ICT
The Information Management is responsible for all IT across British Airways group and plays a very important role in shaping the future of all the airline. As a full service, network carrier committed to providing the right service to customers, high performing IT and telecommunications systems, are vital to the running of the company. (Internet site 1).
Cost-effective deployment of technology, and using it effectively is a critical skill in the airline industry and one which will enhance British Airways proposition, enable customers and generate productivity. (Internet site 1).
Financial
One of British Airways key responsibility is their shareholders. The shareholders ensure that British Airways generate a sustainable return on the capital employed in the business and can invest further growth. British Airways have set a target of a 10% operating margin to ensure an adequate financial return and continue to make progress to achieve this goal. (Ayling, 2005).
The directors are responsible for the company’s system of internal control, including internal financial control, which is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the safeguarding of assets against unauthorised use or disposition, the maintenance of proper accounting records and the reliability of financial information used within the business. (Ayling, 2005).
Technical
As the technologies of data processing and telecommunications are merging and so are the services which they support coming together.
British Airways has introduced entertainment technology with information provision and processing. By using a hand-held device passengers are able to access dozens of TV entertainment channels, up-to-date news service and computer games. (Slack et al, 1998).
External & Internal Resources
All operations produce goods or services or a mixture of two, this happens by a process of transformation. Transformation is when resources are used to change the state of something to produce outputs. Operations take in a set of input resources, use them to transform something or to be transformed into outputs of goods and services. (Slack et al, 1998).
British Airways also use the input-transformation-output processes. The input resources are aircraft, pilots, aircrew, ground crew, passengers and freight, the transformation process is move passengers and freight around the world and the output is transported passengers and freight. (Ayling, 2005).
British Airways will only succeed in businesses in partnership with shareholders, invertors, employees and their customers. (Ayling, 1999).
The shareholders ensure that the company generates a sustainable return on the capital employed in the business and can invest for further growth. (Ayling, 1999).
British Airways external resources are their suppliers. British Airways source and contract good quality suppliers to meet all their worldwide requirements. British Airways on average have 2,000 suppliers worldwide. These suppliers provide a range of items to a number of different locations. (Internet site 3).
British Airways value their suppliers ability to provide goods and services to their requirements and British Airways in return commit to paying their suppliers on time.
CONCLUSION
British Airways is one of the world’s successful and largest international airlines which
carries passengers and freight all over the world. Their main aim is the safety of their customers and employees. British Airways also values their customers, stakeholders and their employees and their goal is to deliver the highest standard of customer service at every opportunity.
RECOMMENDATIONS
My recommendations for British Airways to improve their service operations management would be:
- For British Airways to manage waste responsibly and efficiently such as start to recycle more as British Airways waste proportion has increased
- To be efficient in using fuel and energy as fuel is one of the largest costs of British Airways
- For British Airways to work together with other airlines and reduce their congestion on air and on ground as congestion and delays are major problems for British Airways
- To reduce the noise impact of aircraft fleets as noise is a major environmental issue for any airline and can be very disruptive for others around and for the community.
REFRENCES
ANNUAL REPORTS
Ayling, Bob., (1999) British Airways Annual Environmental Report
Ayling, Bob., (2005) British Airways Annual Environmental Report
BOOKS
Chambers,stuart. Harland,Christine. Harrison,alan. Johnston,Robert. Slack,Nigel. (1998),Operations management 2nd edition,pitman
Graham,anne., (2003), Managing airports an international perspective 2nd edition,butterworth-heinmann
INTERNET SITES
Internet site 1: http://www.bashares.com/phoenis.zhtml?c=69499&p=irol-factsbook
Internet site 2: http://www.jyanet.com/cap/0614eo.htm
Internet site 3: www.ba.com/reponsibility
Internet site 4: www.britishairways.com/travel/crlocairqual/public/en-gb
Internet site 5: http://wwwturtlefiji.com/media/britishair.htm
Internet site 6: http://www.fbm.com/cases/dr2.html
Internet site 7: http://www.uk.businessobjects.com/pdf/customers/ba.pdf#search=yield%20maagement%20british%-20airways
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ANNUAL REPORTS
Ayling, Bob., (1999) British Airways Annual Environmental Report
Ayling, Bob., (2005) British Airways Annual Environmental Report
BOOKS
Bessant, John. Brown, Steve. Jones, Peter. Lamming, Richard. (2005), Strategic Operations Management, 2nd edition, butterworth-heinmann
Chambers, Stuart. Harland, Christine. Harrison, Alan. Johnston, Robert. Slack, Nigel. (1998),Operations management 2nd edition, pitman
Chambers, Stuart. Harland, Christine. Harrison, Alan. Johnston, Robert. Slack, Nigel. (2004), Operations Management, 4th edition, prentice hall
Graham, Anne., (2003), Managing airports an international perspective 2nd edition, butterworth-heinmann
Harrison, Mike (1996), Principles of Operations Management, 1st edition, Pitman
Wright, J.Nevan (1999), The Management of Service Operations, 1st edition, Cassell
INTERNET SITES
Internet site 1: http://www.bashares.com/phoenis.zhtml?c=69499&p=irol-factsbook
Internet site 2: http://www.jyanet.com/cap/0614eo.htm
Internet site 3: www.ba.com/reponsibility
Internet site 4: www.britishairways.com/travel/crlocairqual/public/en-gb
Internet site 5: http://wwwturtlefiji.com/media/britishair.htm
Internet site 6: http://www.fbm.com/cases/dr2.html
Internet site 7: http://www.uk.businessobjects.com/pdf/customers/ba.pdf#search=yield%20maagement%20british%-20airways
