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BA takes drastic steps to improve punctuality
All is not rosy in the garden at British Airways. As well as customer satisfaction scores being down, their punctuality is not improving despite taking steps to incentivise staff to get flights away on time. Now the new Chief Operating Officer (who came from KLM) has ordered senior managers to “sponsor” a flight to try to identify steps to improve punctuality. This will mean they are actually there observing the process to see if they can work out what is going wrong.
The fact that managers don’t already know the answer suggests a breakdown between staff and managers. Who has had a flight depart late due to a late arriving aircraft? I’m pretty sure almost every reader that has flown on BA in the last year has had this on most flights.
Almost every flight I have had with BA recently has been delayed inbound to Heathrow because there is a lack of staff to operate the stand guidance or lack of a stand. Plus, increased bus use for long haul flights can’t be helping with turn-round times either. Add to that the issues with the A380, which seems to be one of the worse hit for delays (I suspect the problems with inoperable seats are contributing to this since B A has been having difficulty getting parts to fix them).
With aircraft departing on time currently as low as 51.9% in March, according to data supplied by aviation analytics firm OAG. The last attempt was to focus on New York JFK, now they are trying to identify improvements in general. Their target is for 67% of aircraft to depart within 15 minutes of departure time, so not exactly ambitious. Here’s one – pay enough money so you can staff your operation fully!
Air France/KLM launch business light fares?
When I wrote about Air France/KLM announcing that they would be charging for business class seats, I wondered at the time why they didn’t follow others such as Finnair and Qatar by offering a business class lite fare rather than charging all passengers for a seat. Well, I should be careful what I wish for as that is precisely what they look like they are doing. US blog Loyalty Lobby today posted screenshots of a new business light fare that could be seen when booking. However, I have been unable to replicate this myself, even on the same routes. Nothing has been announced by KLM/AF, so I wonder if this has not officially launched yet, but it looks like it is coming!
The new light fares have the following differences
- No Lounge access
- 1 x 32g bag instead of 2
- No seat selection until check-in
You still get all your SkyPriority benefits, but it looks like they will not be changing their stance on seat selection fees as business standard will still have to pay for seat selection.
What do you think about the launch of business light fares from AF/KLM. Would it put you off flying with them? Let us know in the comments below.
Radisson launch 25% off summer sale
If you need to book some hotels for the summer, Radisson has launched a sale which covers the usually expensive school holiday period. I suspect it is because a lot of Radisson’s are more business focused.
The offer is for hotels across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific with and up to 25% off on hotel stays booked by 15 May. You stay from 1 July 1st to 10 September 2023.
You can find the sale page here.
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