British Airways was formed in 1974 and it is the flag carrier company of the United Kingdom. These last two decades, the company experienced rapid growth and now has become one of the most prestigious worldwide flying carriers. In the beginning it was formed based on a public ownership scheme but later it undertook a series of transformations throughout the ’70 and the ’80. These transformations culminated in February 1987 when it was privatized by the Conservative government in Britain. At the same time it was indexed at the London Stock Exchange and made a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Since that time the airline boosted and, in a period when most big airlines struggled to gain profits, it remained on top of the preferences of worldwide customers. Since that time it had passed a turbulent era of high competition, rising oil prices (which meant cost increase) and even financial scandals, like the 2007 fine for price-fixing.
Company’s Mission Statement
According to its current “Chairman”, the mission of British Airways is to serve the customer with the highest quality service possible and make all the necessary financial operations to satisfy its shareholders too (“2007/08 Annual Report”, par. 1).
Company’s products.
Being a flying carrier company, British Airways is part of the airline industry and airline marketplace. The airline industry market has been under serious difficulties in the last decade. The last was the oil price rapid increase of the last few years, which disfavored the company by raising the fuel costs for its jets. This meant a rise in total operations costs. As stated on their official website, British Airways offers two basic services to the market: passenger flight services and cargo flights service (“What we offer” par. 1). These are the main products that the company operates. These two basic services are differentiated into categories for business purposes. The cargo flights service remains intact and has no category but the passenger flights service is composed of four categories and one mix-category package. The four categories offered are first class flights, business class flights, premium economic flights and economic flights (“Travel Classes”, par. 1,2,3,4). The first class and business class are part of the business flights service within the passenger flights service offered and the other two are part of the economic flight’s service for passengers. Also, the company has operative the mix-category “Holiday package”. This service comprises hotels, resorts and flight offers. The company has signed agreements with hotels and resorts around the world and offers the flight, along with return, to those places.
Competition and position on the market
As valuated by the 2008 Barclaycard Business, British Airways has a leading position in the airline market (“Press Release”, par. 2). From the same source, a couple of paragraphs below, we found the identities of the company’s main competitors. Above all, the strongest direct competitor is the German flag carrier company, Lufthansa. Then two other big companies come to Air France and the Fly Emirates. This is on a global market scale. All of the mentioned companies, including the one we are discussing here, operate in almost all of the world’s markets: Europe, North America, Middle East and Central Asia, Far East and Australia. Of course the competitiveness is different according to the market British Airways is competing in. In the European and North American market the company we are discussing has a leader position on the market and its expanding more its market share (“Press Release”, par. 6). In the Middle East/ Central Asia and the Far East it may not be the leader but it has a relatively good market share (“Press Release”, par. 8).
References
- “What we offer”. 2008. The British Airways Plc. Official Website.
- “2007/08 Annual Report”. 2008. The British Airways Plc. Official Website. Web.
- “Travel Classes”. 2008. The British Airways Plc. Official Website. Web.
- “Holiday package”. 2008. The British Airways Plc. Official Website.
- “Press Release”. 2008. Barclaycard Business.