1st slide

The airline sector of the UK contributes around £60 billion to the country's economy
(Statista, 2021). British Airways (BA) has the honour to be the flag carrier of the country and
is the most prominent airline in the country. It has a history of over 100 years, with a fleet of
254 aircraft that provides passengers with an option to move to 183 destinations (Teker &
Teker, 2022). Being part of the Oneworld airline alliance (Calzada, et al., 2022), BA became
one of the largest airlines worldwide and has managed to become part of the leading flying
career. 

2nd slide

However, this pride of Britain is been going through lots of uncertainty and is surrounded by
multiple crises, which is diminishing the positive reputation of the airline. The inculcation of
various crises is creating problems that would have more than just financial implications.
There are three main crises BA needs to pay utmost attention and these are:

 Environmental issues

 Staff shortage

 Continuous rise in fuel cost (Hulpke & Lau, 2022).

 

In current circumstances, there is a need to adopt an effective response strategy that

specifically addresses these crises, provides a road map and also communicates the plan as
well as results to the stakeholders (Wu & Overton, 2022). The purpose of this work is to
ascertain the key response strategy of the British airways and what needs to be done to
overcome these issues. 
Response strategy and key objectives

3rd slide

The first thing that the BA airline needs to do is to work to overcome the issue on its own and
that too on an immediate basis. Ignoring these risks might help the BA to linger on for a few
more years, but the issue cannot be solved until some concrete measures are taken. As British
airways is under severe criticism for the last few years due to its failure on completing any
major milestone when it comes to these risks (Pera, 2022). So, it's time to accept these
risks and then work on reducing the risks. This must be the key approach that should be
taken, and the objectives of the response strategy must base on these factors. 

4th slide

Currently, the shortage of employees poses the biggest challenge to the BA. The continuous
strikes and the fact that the airline is facing problems in keeping up its cabin crew numbers
with a lack of motivation make employees leave BA (McCabe, 2022). So, there is a need to
set objectives first, and the airline must look for creating a workforce that is talented and
well-motivated. This is the first step and this issue needs to be resolved urgently, and
employing more workforce with prime emphasis on cabin crew should remain the first
priority or objective, to counter this current crisis which British airways need to tackle. 

5th slide

The airline sector suffered major losses during the pandemic and like many other airlines,
British Airways suffered a loss of around £5billion, amid the pandemic (Dube, et al., 2021).
These losses now adding up with the continuous fluctuation in fuel cost are making it quite
hard to co-opt with the current industry situation. The increase in the number of airlines and
the current war in Europe is leading to a major increase in fuel cost (Stamolampros, 2022).
The response in the current situation is to look for some other alternatives as a sustainable
fuel is also making rounds or to increase the number of flights in those areas where
passengers amount is less. 
6th slide

Finally, the environmental crisis is an issue that is putting many companies in a position
where it is becoming essential to come up with a plan to value profits as well as
environmental issues. British Airways are among those airlines that fail to fulfil its
commitment of showing any major improvement in the accomplishment of sustainable goals
(Paddon, 2022). In fact, the airline was declared the second largest contributor to pollution in
the airline sector of Europe (Madeleine Cuff, 2021). There is a need to place the next 3 years'
plan with an aim to reduce the emission of CO2 and also take some other concrete measures
to reduce the impact of its operations on the environment. 

 
Communication tools

7th slide

In this era of information and technology, it is not possible to keep the stakeholders unaware
of the company's actions. The significance of communication is undeniable and BA is
currently facing a situation where it is mandatory to keep a good level of interaction with the
public to promote its business activities. British Airways needs to adopt different approaches
to promote its positive aspects and for that different communication mediums and tools can
be used. 

8th slide
Social media: According to (Jovana Zivkovic, 2022) there are around 53 million people in
the UK who actively use different platforms of social media. So it should be the key tool that
must be used to engage a large number of customers, and let them know what BA is doing to
fulfil the demands of its stakeholders. Being active on these platforms means that the
audience is big and social media campaigns have proven more effective. So, promoting
activities there would prove more useful there. 
9th slide

Engaging through managers: As was stated earlier that employee shortage is currently the
biggest issue BA faces. The lower employee retention shows that BA isn’t communicating
well enough with its most important stakeholders. The value of employees is known to those
who are involved in this kind of business (Ashleigh Webber, 2021). Especially those who are
experienced and know how to deal with customers cannot be ignored. So, engaging them via
meetings, or by organizing different sessions to understand their needs and suggestions is an
essential element that would be really helpful to develop organisational relations (Bardhan,
2022) with employees.

10th slide

Finally, display stands & use of print media is the technique that is already used by the
airline. Though, instead of focusing only on coupons, loyalty programs or travelling rates
(Rajpoot, et al., 2022). The focus should be on what British airways are doing to become
more sustainable, how it manages to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic and
most importantly what is the approach airline to solve the current crisis of employee shortage.
In this way, the airline might be able to attract young talent too and then opt to develop good
relations with them.

What will be communicated

11th slide

Though using communication tool is one thing, the steps that need to be taken to achieve
those goals is another. The airline should look for these crises separately and then come up
with the most effective plan.

Fuel cost: This issue is not unique as almost all of the key airlines are suffering from an
increase in fuel cost (Sahar, et al., 2022). The overall cost of fuel to the airline could be
reduced by decreasing the domestic flights for a time being. It is important to know that the
airline earns most of the benefits from international flights. The Green fuel can also be used
for time being though its high prices restrict its large amount of use (Green, 2022). The BA
can also use some technical means to reduce the use of fuel like decreasing excessive
speeding and maintaining the aircraft in a good position.

12th slide

Shortage of employees: To address the issues of employees more effectively, the executives
of the company must offer the employees to work from home as well, for a few days in a
month. The reason why it's important is that it will communicate a good message to others,
that British Airways are giving a flexible working environment and is worried about their
well-being (Kahn, 2022). This approach could also be useful to counterbalance low salaries
for the employees. In addition to that, the cabin crews should be given more incentives
financially, and the company should announce bonuses for those crew members who have
experience working for different airlines (Karunakaran & Ashok Babu , 2022), It is
significant as BA is known for its quality customer services and such employees would be
very beneficial. 

13th slide

Sustainability issues
British Airways must show some great flexibility and take major steps to become more
environmentally friendly. BA was ranked 2nd most polluted airline in Europe as it emits 18.4
million tons of CO2 and it alone causes pollution that is equal to all of the vehicles in the UK
(Solanki, 2022). Here, the first step BA needs to take is to go for a few sustainable flights, by
reducing the fuel tank weight of the aircraft, or by using Green fuel for some of its flights. It
is the most effective way to reduce the yearly emission of CO2, and the airline should set a
target for improvement in its environmentally friendly operations for the next three years. 
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