tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/british-airways-14616/articlesBritish Airways – The Conversation2023-12-12T17:30:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195912023-12-12T17:30:11Z2023-12-12T17:30:11ZThe NZ aviation industry is making bold climate claims – and risking anti-greenwashing litigation<p>On the same day last week that Air New Zealand announced the purchase of its <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/504050/air-new-zealand-purchases-its-first-battery-powered-electric-aircraft">first fully electric aircraft</a>, Christchurch Airport <a href="https://www.christchurchairport.co.nz/about-us/who-we-are/media/2023/cop28-christchurch-airport-among-first-ten-in-the-world-to-achieve-new-standard-for-decarbonisation/">announced</a> it had reached “a new standard for decarbonisation”. On the face of it, great news for reducing aviation emissions in Aotearoa. </p>
<p>The reality is a little more complex – and risky. As the climate warms, so too is the temperature in boardrooms and courtrooms. The aviation industry is under increasing scrutiny for its sustainability claims, and climate litigation is on the rise.</p>
<p>At the same time, “net zero” strategies in general are being challenged. The United Nations <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/high-level-expert-group">High-Level Expert Group</a> was established at last year’s COP27 summit, as Secretary General António Guterres explained, because “net zero suffers from a surplus of confusion and a deficit of credibility”. </p>
<p>The expert group has put forward a set of net-zero guidelines to put a “red line through greenwashing”. The guidelines underpin the UN’s approach to net zero, which requires corporate entities to advance ambitious climate mitigation actions based on rigorous and comprehensive <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/about-us">science-based targets</a>. </p>
<p>Among other things, the targets must include emissions reductions from the entity’s <a href="https://zerotracker.net/insights/un-hleg-net-zero-recommendations">full value chain and activities</a>. These include emissions from sources the entity owns and controls directly (known as scope 1); emissions the entity causes indirectly (scope 2); and emissions not produced by the entity itself, but arising up and down its value chain (scope 3). </p>
<p>The expert group also notes that voluntary carbon credits (offsets) <a href="https://zerotracker.net/insights/un-hleg-net-zero-recommendations">cannot be counted</a> towards interim emissions reductions required on the pathway to Net Zero 2050. This is because carbon offsetting has been shown to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-burning-too-much-fossil-fuel-to-fix-by-planting-trees-making-net-zero-emissions-impossible-with-offsets-217437">troublesome at best</a>, and in many cases a <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/79031600/government-allowed-climate-fraud-to-reach-emission-reduction-targets--report">scam</a>. </p>
<h2>Airlines in the firing line</h2>
<p>Key players in the global aviation industry that make unsupportable claims have become <a href="https://theconversation.com/airlines-are-being-hit-by-anti-greenwashing-litigation-heres-what-makes-them-perfect-targets-214501">targets for climate litigation</a>. </p>
<p>A recent greenwashing complaint to the European Commission, for example, was filed by consumer groups in 19 countries against 17 airlines. Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/30/airlines-virgin-atlantic-british-airways-face-formal-complaints-over-contested-sustainability-claims">facing formal complaints</a> filed by a climate charity and law firm over sustainable flight claims. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/airlines-are-being-hit-by-anti-greenwashing-litigation-heres-what-makes-them-perfect-targets-214501">Airlines are being hit by anti-greenwashing litigation – here's what makes them perfect targets</a>
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<p>Advertisements for Air France, Lufthansa and Etihad <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67625200">have been banned</a> in the UK for greenwashing, following complaints to the UK Advertising Standards Board that phrases such as “protecting the future”, “sustainable avitaion” and “low-emissions airline” are misleading consumers.</p>
<p>Delta faces a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-13/a-greenwashing-lawsuit-against-delta-aims-to-set-a-precedent">class action lawsuit</a> for claiming to be “the first carbon neutral airline on a global basis” in a case brought by a California resident claiming the airline has grossly misrepresented its climate impact. </p>
<p>And KLM is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/greenwashing-lawsuit-against-klm-can-proceed-dutch-court-2023-06-07/">being sued</a> for greenwashing by law firm Client Earth, which successfully argued the Dutch airline’s “Fly Responsibly” campaign consitutes <a href="https://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press/klm-tells-dutch-court-it-will-pull-fly-responsibly-ads-following-greenwashing-lawsuit/">misleading advertising</a> under EU law while KLM is growing its number of flights rather than reducing emissions.</p>
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<h2>Long-haul growth versus decarbonisation</h2>
<p>Cases like these raise questions about Air New Zealand’s “<a href="https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/sustainability-carbon-reduction-management">Flight NZ0</a>” <a href="https://flightnz0.airnewzealand.co.nz/">strategy and marketing</a>, which focuses on sustainable aviation fuel and next-generation aircraft (including its recently bought electric <a href="https://www.beta.team/aircraft/">Beta Alia</a>), complemented by carbon offsetting and operational efficiency.</p>
<p>The focus on sustainable fuel will have to overcome significant scientific, energy, scalability and cost <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723025044">barriers</a>. Solutions to these <a href="https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/low-carbon-energy-programme/net-zero-aviation-fuels/">complex problems</a> are likely to be decades away at least.</p>
<p>While Air New Zealand promotes the Beta Alia – with its inherent altitude, payload and range limitations – it also aims to <a href="https://www.airnewzealandnewsroom.com/press-release-2023-air-nz-attracting-offshore-visitors-with-expanded-capacity-and-fleet-investment">significantly increase</a> its long haul network, and is <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/128136504/air-new-zealand-sets-lofty-goal-for-ultralonghaul-aucklandnew-york-flights">setting its sights</a> on the “ultra long haul experience”.</p>
<p>The contradiction between long-haul growth and decarbonisation strategies is expressed in the airline’s own 2017 <a href="https://p-airnz.com/cms/assets/PDFs/sustainability-report-2017-v2.pdf">sustainability report</a>, in which the sustainability advisory panel chair wrote:</p>
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<p>And that’s the dilemma for anyone who cares passionately about addressing the multiple threats of climate change: either stop flying altogether (the logical but somewhat unworldly idealist’s position), or fly as little and as discriminatingly and responsibly as possible (the often uncomfortable pragmatist’s position). </p>
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<p>As consumers and environmentalists focus more on the validity of climate claims and the viability of carbon reduction strategies, Air New Zealand may find it harder to defend its net zero pathway.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/high-court-decision-on-125-million-fine-for-volkswagen-is-a-warning-to-all-greenwashers-171733">High Court decision on $125 million fine for Volkswagen is a warning to all greenwashers</a>
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<h2>Airports on the radar</h2>
<p>The environmental claims of other players in the wider aviation system – notably airports – are also likely to attract critical attention.</p>
<p>Airports Council International (ACI) is the <a href="https://aci.aero/">global industry body</a> for airports, with over 550 airports taking part in its <a href="https://www.airportcarbonaccreditation.org/">Airport Carbon Accreditation</a> program, including many in New Zealand (most recently <a href="https://www.airportcarbonaccreditation.org/invercargill-airport-joins-airport-carbon-accreditation/">Invercargill Airport</a>).</p>
<p>Christchurch Airport has been in the program for longer, and makes significant climate claims. In April 2022, it <a href="https://www.christchurchairport.co.nz/about-us/who-we-are/media/2022/another-world-class-sustainability-achievement-for-christchurch-airport/">announced</a> “another world class sustainability achievement”, going “beyond carbon neutral, to become climate positive”.</p>
<p>But this doesn’t account for scope 3 emissions, mainly associated with flights in and out of the airport, which make up 95.39% of <a href="https://www.christchurchairport.co.nz/globalassets/about-us/sustainability/carbon/fy2022-23-independent-ghg-inventory-report">total emissions</a>. Airports can only appear to be climate-neutral by not accounting for the high and growing emissions of the planes that are their core business.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/boys-will-be-boys-why-consumers-dont-punish-big-polluters-for-greenwashing-lies-194902">'Boys will be boys': why consumers don't punish big polluters for greenwashing lies</a>
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<h2>Stakeholder reputations on the line</h2>
<p>Key stakeholders are also exposed to any potential accusations of greenwashing. Christchurch City Council own 75% of the airport through a holding company, and the government owns 25%. Both have <a href="https://newsline.ccc.govt.nz/news/story/christchurch-city-council-declares-climate-emergency">declared climate emergencies</a> and made emissions reduction commitments.</p>
<p>Industry groups are involved, too. Tourism Industry Aotearoa, which represents businesses across the tourism industry, last month announced Christchurch Airport the <a href="https://www.tia.org.nz/news-and-updates/industry-news/new-zealand-tourism-awards-winners-for-2023/">winner of its Tourism Environment Award</a>. </p>
<p>It cited the airport’s “climate positive” status and hailed it as being “at the forefront of airport environmental initiatives globally”. Such claims can be technically true if one accepts the limited parameters used to measure them.</p>
<p>But the Tourism Industry Aotearoa will need to ensure its environmental awards keep pace with developments in this rapidly changing field – including the increasing risk of litigation over unsustainable claims about sustainability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Higham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Airlines and airports face increased scrutiny – and possibly legal action – over the contradictions between their sustainability claims and the reality of their high-emissions businesses.James Higham, Professor of Tourism, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2076702023-06-19T13:44:08Z2023-06-19T13:44:08ZMoveit hack: attack on BBC and BA offers glimpse into the future of cybercrime<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531739/original/file-20230613-15-41oll0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C0%2C7238%2C4803&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>British Airways (BA), the BBC, Ofcom and Boots were among a number of organisations that were reportedly <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65814104">victims of a major recent cyber-attack</a>, resulting in the breach of numerous staff details.</p>
<p>The stolen data is said to include staff names, staff ID numbers and national insurance numbers (although, importantly, not banking details). But, other than for those personally affected, the real issue is what this attack reveals about the evolution of cybercrime. </p>
<p>More cybercriminals are realising that if they can compromise a trusted supplier, this will lead to the compromise of that organisation’s customers. The hackers can then steal the data and potentially hold both individuals and companies to ransom. </p>
<p>So far, this has proven a more difficult way to make a lot of money. But it’s arguably only a matter of time.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-158a">The recent attack</a> was against a piece of software called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVEit">Moveit</a>, which is used to transfer computer files from one location to another. It involved what’s called a “<a href="https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/business/enterprise-computers/resources/what-is-a-zero-day-exploit.html">zero-day exploit</a>”, a piece of computer code that takes advantage of a previously unknown vulnerability.</p>
<p>This allowed hackers to compromise Zellis, a trusted supplier of services to BA, the BBC, Boots and others. Zellis confirmed a <a href="https://www.zellis.com/resources/press-and-media/statement-on-moveit-transfer-data-breach/">“small number” of customers had been affected</a>, adding that it had disconnected the server using Moveit as soon as it became aware of the incident.</p>
<p>Since Zellis is the main payroll service provider to these organisations, it is easy to trace how this incident started. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Russia-linked “cl0p” group, which has since issued an ultimatum to the affected organisations – asking for money unless they want the stolen data to be released on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-dark-web-and-how-does-it-work-63613">dark web</a>. </p>
<h2>Future of cybercrime</h2>
<p>Unlike many previous types of attack, particularly those that have employed <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-a-ransomware-attack-how-dark-webs-of-cybercriminals-collaborate-to-pull-them-off-163015">ransomware</a>, in this case the criminal group launched a mass attack and waited for individual organisations to fall prey, then sought to exploit each one in turn.</p>
<p>This suggests these cybercriminals have learned from previous <a href="https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/supply-chain-security/supply-chain-attack-examples">supply-chain attacks</a>, and are experimenting with making the strategy commercially viable. In supply-chain attacks, cybercriminals target one organisation by attacking an external provider they use.</p>
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<img alt="BBC New Broadcasting House in London." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531741/original/file-20230613-25-zss8e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531741/original/file-20230613-25-zss8e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531741/original/file-20230613-25-zss8e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531741/original/file-20230613-25-zss8e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531741/original/file-20230613-25-zss8e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531741/original/file-20230613-25-zss8e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531741/original/file-20230613-25-zss8e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The BBC was among the organisations successfully hacked.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-october-10-2022-broadcasting-2217633041">Nigel J. Harris / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Groups such as cl0p appear to have watched and learned, especially from the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/16/985439655/a-worst-nightmare-cyberattack-the-untold-story-of-the-solarwinds-hack">SolarWinds attack of late 2020</a>, where the system for “patching” – doing quick repairs of – a near-ubiquitous software tool was compromised. </p>
<p>This software was widely used across the US government and industry, leading to tens of thousands of SolarWinds clients falling victim, including the Department of Defense, Nasa, TimeWarner and AT&T. Attributed to Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU, SolarWinds was seen as being mainly motivated by state espionage. </p>
<p>And in the case of Moveit, the cl0p group appears to have taken the logic of supply-chain attacks – which proved so effective against SolarWinds – and wielded it against corporate targets. </p>
<h2>Evolutionary step</h2>
<p>This was arguably always going to be an evolutionary step for cybercriminals. First, sophisticated state-sponsored hackers verify an innovative method of attacking computers, as in the case of SolarWinds. Later, criminal copycats such as cl0p apply the same strategy, avoiding the pain of inventing new methods.</p>
<p>The ultimatum issued by cl0p is also revealing about the behaviour and motivation of cybercriminals. It is a strange pivot from traditional ransomware campaigns, where the victims’ payment details were stolen. </p>
<p>In the case of Moveit, it is instructive that cl0p has <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/cyber-crime-gang-clop-issues-ultimatum-to-100-000-victims-of-hacking-threatening/">issued a public ultimatum</a>, telling victim organisations to get in touch unless they want their data to be released into the wild – allowing its exploitation by scammers, fraudsters and other criminals. </p>
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<img alt="British Airways flight." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532199/original/file-20230615-17-5fawnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532199/original/file-20230615-17-5fawnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532199/original/file-20230615-17-5fawnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532199/original/file-20230615-17-5fawnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532199/original/file-20230615-17-5fawnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532199/original/file-20230615-17-5fawnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532199/original/file-20230615-17-5fawnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The organisations involved, including BA, were using Zellis for payroll services.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-august-17-2018-largest-1164809374">Jarek Kilian / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Effectively, cl0p is relying on a panic tactic to get organisations to take responsibility for the stolen data and protect their staff’s identities, by volunteering themselves to the criminals for negotiation – presumably on the topic of payment. </p>
<p>This reveals a clear lack of resource – outside the technical “attack teams” – on the part of cl0p to fully exploit its apparent success in compromising Moveit. </p>
<p>This is a potential flaw in the behaviour of such criminal groups. It shows that a move from ransomware-driven campaigns to supply-chain attacks is more difficult to monetise. </p>
<p>The final step in maximising the return from the attack, by making all the victims pay, is clearly harder than with simple ransomware, where the focus is on one target organisation and one route to the pay-out from the crime. </p>
<p>In short, cybercriminal groups have copied the supply-chain attack strategy and are now experimenting with it. But they are struggling to fully exploit and monetise the successes they have with it.</p>
<p>Where ransomware has been the campaign of choice for more than half a decade, we should, however, be concerned that the Moveit attack signals a change of strategy. Supply-chain attacks are effective, and the criminals are now working to refine their methods in order to fully exploit them. As such, it’s very likely that these attacks will only become more widespread.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cybercriminals are attempting to monetise the hacking techniques used by state actors.Danny Steed, Lecturer in Cyber Security, Cranfield UniversityRobert Black, Lecturer in Information Activities, Cranfield UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1659232021-08-11T12:31:26Z2021-08-11T12:31:26ZRichard Branson aims to float Virgin Atlantic while air travel is in doubt – yet he might pull it off<p>Harvard Business School strategy guru Professor Michael Porter <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=487332088972304">famously described</a> the airline industry as “one of the least profitable industries known to man”. He said most airlines are predominantly losing money, “punctuated by brief periods of mediocre profits”. </p>
<p>Virgin Atlantic’s profits have not always been mediocre, but it has certainly <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1010514/virgin-atlantic-airways-ltd-net-profit/">often lost money</a>, achieving an <a href="https://corporate.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/annual-reports.html">operating profit</a> only twice <a href="https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/virgin-atlantic-airways-sees-more-than-a-little-red-but-things-were-much-simpler-30-years-ago-169385">in the 2010s</a>. Predominantly long-haul, it has faced intense competition over the years, with <a href="https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-8511509/British-Airways-battle-prized-airport-landing-slots.html">British Airways controlling</a> more landing slots at Heathrow – especially on the profitable routes across the Atlantic. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://corporate.virginatlantic.com/content/dam/corporate/Virgin%20Atlantic%20Annual%20Report%202020_final%20v1.pdf">the calendar year 2019</a>, Virgin Atlantic turned over almost £3 billion, made a pre-tax loss before exceptional items of £30 million, and employed some 10,000 people. Thanks to COVID, the airline in 2020 lost £669 million before tax and exceptional items on turnover of £0.9 billion, and staff numbers were cut to just below 6,000. </p>
<p>Besides this huge reduction in staff, Virgin Atlantic has needed over £1.5 billion from <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53908474">rescue deals</a> and <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/virgin-atlantic-sells-dreamliners-to-aid-post-covid-recovery-bid-12155513">sell-offs</a> to <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/virgin-atlantic-in-talks-about-160m-bailout-as-travel-ban-forces-fresh-creditor-talks-12244618">stay airborne</a> during the pandemic. This has included hundreds of millions of pounds from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, which owns 51% of the business. US airline Delta, which owns the remaining 49%, contributed too. </p>
<p>Virgin Atlantic has been in private hands for the whole of its 37-year existence. But now, fresh from <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/11/richard-branson-reaches-space-on-virgin-galactic-flight.html">his trip</a> to the edge of space, Branson is <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/virgin-atlantic-takes-flight-with-surprise-plot-to-land-on-london-stock-market-12375314">reputedly planning to</a> list the airline on the London Stock Exchange this autumn. This IPO (initial public offering) has come as something of a surprise – but is it really?</p>
<h2>What’s wrong with the airline business</h2>
<p>Why did Porter consider airlines so unprofitable? It goes back to his well-known <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/porter.asp">“five forces” analysis</a>, which includes the barriers to entry into an industry for potential competitors, the level of competition and the ability of suppliers and customers to extract money.</p>
<p>Anyone with enough money can enter the airlines industry as planes, crews and landing gates can all be hired. An entrant can start with as little as one plane if they so wish. This means there is always the potential for lots of new players, which forces operators to be as competitive as possible – usually meaning the cheapest possible tickets for customers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Virgin Atlantic plane viewed from below" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415623/original/file-20210811-23-1e5tsmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415623/original/file-20210811-23-1e5tsmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415623/original/file-20210811-23-1e5tsmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415623/original/file-20210811-23-1e5tsmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415623/original/file-20210811-23-1e5tsmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415623/original/file-20210811-23-1e5tsmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415623/original/file-20210811-23-1e5tsmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not a cloud in the sky.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gunnarkullenberg/15830147996/in/photolist-q7RDu9-bkbbTh-2mcL7pU-2ecnf6e-q42f8V-2k3D9mZ-2iwHvso-2kStE6K-2iJYk7r-2kWVyyS-2kFCJoU-2jJKTav-S1Y44X-JtTtRd-2dfAYRh-HnDFdZ-24ZsGMG-24jnmXN-22ihCph-ANEdei-Nzkc3e-2ii1X6x-2jzCYCC-2dfAYQ5-vqscAk-xvKpj-254fFGe-2jnW9ee-254fFGV-9okYwH-2jhEXXd-254g3ZK-RfDQK3-Gntdpg-2hAwRve-24ZsGMm-2iawh4F-kLyqEA-22VvmKv-TniNwQ-wHhXFn-UoGbJN-2kN2W9t-2gxdNKm-Thvkxu-2eGQzAq-wz8SLy-Thvre9-2jgbXia-2jGpn6M">Gunnar Kullenberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, suppliers have immense power to extract profits from airlines. Popular hub airports such as Heathrow can charge them handsomely for using their landing slots. Equally, when airlines buy large planes they must face the duopoly of Boeing and Airbus, neither of which is likely to offer a bargain given the lack of competition. In addition the industry is unionised and the unions can bring flights to a halt. This all serves to squeeze airlines’ profits.</p>
<p>Even then, airlines are very much at the whim of what strategists would call environmental forces. Over the years there have been major collapses in demand and air travel <a href="https://www.bts.gov/archive/publications/special_reports_and_issue_briefs/issue_briefs/number_13/entire">following 9/11</a>, the <a href="https://apex.aero/articles/aftershocks-coronavirus-impact/">global financial crisis</a> of 2007-09, and <a href="https://airlines.iata.org/news/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-aviation">now COVID</a>. </p>
<p>Yet despite persistently low profits and the history of collapses of well-known names, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/07/collapse-monarch-last-days-doomed-airline">Monarch</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/flybmi-failure-airline-collapse-brexit-competition-passenger-rights-a8783031.html">FlyBMI</a>, new entrants continue to appear, such as <a href="https://aviationsourcenews.com/airline/flyr-what-we-know-about-norways-newest-entrant/">Norway’s Flyr</a>. Decade after decade, it is an industry which some view as “sexy”. </p>
<h2>Explaining the IPO</h2>
<p>Branson himself was presumably drawn by airline glamour when he launched Virgin Atlantic in 1984, but nearly four decades of competing in this tough industry and the sheer size of the pandemic losses might have forced a rethink. Floating the business and presumably reducing his exposure to the enormous risks must look attractive right now. </p>
<p>He may also be under pressure on the back of the airline’s rescue. As well as the assistance from Virgin Group and Delta, Virgin Atlantic’s August 2020 <a href="https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3093293/how-passengers-helped-save-virgin-atlantic-crashing-and">bailout involved</a> £170 million in loans from New York hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management.</p>
<p>Hedge funds charge high prices for rescues and this will have been no exception – especially if Virgin Atlantic had little choice after the <a href="https://www.cityam.com/virgin-atlantic-up-to-900m-in-rescue-bid-after-coronavirus-turbulence/">UK government refused</a> to bail it out in summer 2020. The IPO may well have been part of the agreement with Davidson Kempner, allowing the hedge fund to exit in a timely manner. </p>
<p>The question now is how tempting a flotation will be for investors. The first thing to stress is that Virgin Atlantic’s future will not necessarily be a continuation of its previous performance. A major crisis usually provides opportunities for management to restructure a business and cut costs – and COVID has been no exception here. </p>
<p>Virgin Atlantic emerges with that much reduced workforce, has retired several <a href="https://onemileatatime.com/virgin-atlantic-future/">old inefficient planes</a>, and has closed all its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/05/virgin-atlantic-to-close-gatwick-operations-and-lose-3000-workers#:%7E:text=Virgin%20Atlantic%20plans%20to%20cut,airline%20industry%20by%20the%20coronavirus.">interests at Gatwick Airport</a> near the UK’s south coast to leave only London Heathrow and Manchester as its UK hubs. The logic behind getting out of Gatwick is that the airline likely had overcapacity on long haul from the UK’s south east, and Heathrow is far more popular with travellers. The airline may well now be more efficient, retaining its most profitable routes and aircraft. </p>
<p>There has also been an <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/business/markets/deal-frenzy-sees-london-exchange-top-its-own-leaderboard-b949500.html">enormous appetite</a> for new stock market listings, <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/07/31/london-lse-tech-ipos-2021-wise-darktrace-deliveroo-klarna-revolut-monzo/">with a record</a> £27 billion raised including 49 IPOs in London in the first six months of 2021. This is doubtless a “bubble” and valuations are strained at best. But borrowing costs remain low and cash generates little if any interest, so there is lots of money seeking better returns, and every chance that this continues for the foreseeable future. An influx of small amateur traders using apps such as Robinhood and eToro is also helping raise demand for shares. </p>
<p>In this market, there may be much interest in a well-known brand such as Virgin Atlantic that may be more efficient than before COVID. Following the lifting of quarantine requirements between the EU, US and the UK, flight bookings on transatlantic routes <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bc759a50-5e0e-4a23-9034-03b13ecda942">have reportedly</a> surged in recent days, albeit from a low base. </p>
<p>Against all that are several important caveats. Business travel, which is so important for airline profits, <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/transportation/future-of-business-travel-post-covid.html">may not</a> fully recover as organisations have become used to video conferencing. Concerns for the environment have grown over the past 18 months, which <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lonniebowlin/2021/02/08/2021-brings-new-hope-for-air-travel-its-not-what-you-think/">again may mean</a> reduced demand for air travel. And add to that everything that Porter says about this business in general.</p>
<p>But if Branson can persuade investors that the pros outweigh the cons, it could yet be that the time has never been better for an airline IPO. As always, timing is key in flotations. After a terrible pandemic, Virgin Atlantic may yet emerge in a better position than it went in.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165923/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Colley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>No sooner has he returned from space than the Virgin king is making noises about putting his airline on the stock market.John Colley, Professor of Practice, Associate Dean, Warwick Business School, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1542082021-02-01T15:25:01Z2021-02-01T15:25:01ZNairobi’s airports – windows on Kenya’s colonial past and top-down planning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381655/original/file-20210201-15-18b30bz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The plane carrying UK's Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh arrives at Eastleigh Airport in Nairobi in February 1952.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by: Bristol Archives/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Airport histories can be surprising. Changes to airport names may conceal stretches of their past. Thus, the colonial roots of two of Nairobi’s three airports are opaque. Each of the three has taken a turn as the prime international gateway to Kenya.</p>
<p>During the 1930s, Wilson Airport, to the southwest of Nairobi, was the only city airport. It was set up by Kenyans for local flying – still in its infancy – in the colony. It became a stopping place on the new air route operated by Imperial Airways (predecessor of British Airways) across Africa.</p>
<p>During World War II, a second, bigger airport was developed east of the city centre on vacant land at Eastleigh. The airport was built initially as a colonial air force outpost, but was soon shared by civilian airliners.</p>
<p>In the 1950s, a third and even bigger site was developed at Embakasi, further out from and southeast of Nairobi city centre. After independence from Britain in 1963, this airport was developed into the current Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02665433.2020.1858944">paper</a> on the colonial planning of airports in Nairobi, I discuss the decision-making processes around the three airports. The research offers a glimpse of how colonial economic and political considerations affected airport provision. As the colonial power, Britain would have been expected to plan airports easily to suit its needs. But after World War II, Britain – and Kenya – faced financial austerity.</p>
<p>My research shows that planning was actually slow and fraught, especially when Britain declined to pay the entire bill. And airports in Nairobi were not imagined and planned as part of organic city land use or changing urban ecology. Instead, airports happened to colonial Nairobi.</p>
<p>Decades later the city’s airports are a window to the institutional complexities, compromises and devices of late colonialism.</p>
<h2>Colonial considerations</h2>
<p>New purposes are often found for old airports, including using them for general aviation, such as serving recreational flying, and local business and tourist air charter.</p>
<p>This happened at Wilson Airport in Nairobi. The airport at Eastleigh reverted to a military facility – now Moi Airbase – having lost its commercial aviation role in the 1950s.</p>
<p>The layered decision-making behind this switch is a fascinating and, in parts, ugly story.</p>
<p>For eight years in the 1940s and 1950s, colonial officials in London and Nairobi discussed whether to retain and develop Eastleigh for post-War civil aviation, or to create a new and bigger airport elsewhere.</p>
<p>Britain wanted a more modern, safer and better quality airport than Eastleigh. The cost of the necessary runway extensions there versus the cost of developing a new airport at a more remote and expansive site was a major consideration.</p>
<p>Kenya’s Governor in 1945 was adamant that Britain should not expect a colony to pay for even just upgrading an airport for an air service which it had never requested and which few local people would use.</p>
<p>The possibility of paying for new facilities by selling buildings and some land at Eastleigh was considered. But the Royal Air Force was reluctant to give up its base there, especially during the Mau Mau uprising when military aircraft tracked and attacked their positions. </p>
<p>It was not just defence interests. Britain’s civil aviation ministry, the Colonial Office, the Treasury, Britain’s national airline (BOAC), and the Kenyan Legislative Assembly, had different views on how to even estimate the costs of airport renewal or relocation, let alone how to fund them. The Legislative Assembly protected its limited budget fiercely.</p>
<p>Several proposals were put forward. These included variations on how Kenya, Britain and airport users could share the expenses. Multiple studies produced different estimates of land values. And there were competing agendas. For example, the Nairobi City Council wanted the 1,000 acres of land at Eastleigh for houses for a growing population. But the Council did not have first call on or veto powers over the use of Crown Land. Meanwhile, other options were curtailed by requirements to freeze urban land development under aircraft flight paths. </p>
<h2>Eyes on the cost</h2>
<p>The affordability of airport expansion and modernisation was an ongoing headache. It was also a shifting target. During eight years spent on airport planning, different airport specifications and costings were geared to nine successive varieties of British airliner unilaterally proposed by BOAC for use into and out of Nairobi. Each had different technical attributes and variable requirements as regards approach corridor, runway length, width and strength, and aircraft parking space. </p>
<p>The introduction of the first ever passenger jet aircraft on the London–Johannesburg route via Nairobi in May 1952 helped focus minds. Without an airport that could handle BOAC’s Comet jet, Nairobi might have found itself off the principal air route across Africa.</p>
<p>After a technical engineering study of the Embakasi site, and piles of dense estimating, accounting, and reporting, a financial resolution was found. In May 1953 the Kenya Legislative Assembly agreed to the construction of the city’s third airport there. </p>
<p>In the late colonial period, the airport planning process was not very consultative. Officials in various strands of government were in the driving seat. Settler voices were heard indirectly, but not those of Africans or the Kenyan Asian population.</p>
<p>There were no people living on and farming the Embakasi site who had to be relocated to make way for the new airport. Nevertheless, there was a shameful side to Nairobi’s newest airport. In a jarring application of colonial practices, costs were saved during preparation of the new site by using Mau Mau prisoners as manual labourers.</p>
<p>Airport passenger terminals are often designed to flaunt a city and country. Embakasi’s modest terminal made Nairobi’s newest airport more colonial utility than colonial showpiece. A glaring showing of colonialism, the airport’s labour history is not commemorated in its post-colonial re-naming.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon Pirie has received funding from the National Research Foundation and from DfID-ESRC. </span></em></p>Airport passenger terminals are often designed to flaunt a city and country. Embakasi’s rudimentary terminal made Nairobi’s newest airport more colonial utility than colonial showpiece.Gordon Pirie, Honorary Research Associate, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1201002019-07-11T09:33:59Z2019-07-11T09:33:59ZBA’s record fine could help make the public take data security more seriously<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283491/original/file-20190710-44505-1j8zps0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-march-10-boeing-747-74612224?src=QOYRIFPwniyVj0Fmne4FQw-1-70&studio=1">Eliyahu Yosef Parypa/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>British Airways (BA) has received a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48905907">record fine of £183m</a> after details of around 500,000 of its customers were stolen in a data breach <a href="https://theconversation.com/british-airways-hacking-how-not-to-respond-to-a-cyber-attack-102857">in summer 2018</a>. The fine was possible thanks to new rules introduced last year by the EU’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/gdpr-ground-zero-for-a-more-trusted-secure-internet-95951">General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)</a>, which gave the British regulator powers to impose much larger penalties on companies that fail to protect their customers’ data.</p>
<p>But fines like these don’t just act as a business deterrent because of their financial cost. They are a method of public shaming that we can use as a form of social control to force companies to act more ethically. And <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17576283">research on consumer behaviour</a> has demonstrated that social (dis)approval can be a more powerful motivator than financial factors.</p>
<p>The public nature of the fine is embarrassing for BA, as it reminds the public of the data breach and delivers an official verdict that the company was at fault. The huge size of the fine also indicates how serious the breach was. As a result, BA will rightly be worried about what damage the fine might do to its reputation.</p>
<p>Reputation is a valuable commodity for companies, and in some instances can be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0267257X.2018.1546765">more important</a> to consumers than the price of products when they are choosing who to buy from. We tend to make simplistic conclusions about the people and groups around us based on their behaviour, a phenomenon known as <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/real-men-dont-write-blogs/201406/why-we-dont-give-each-other-break">fundamental attribution error</a>. This suggests a fine could lead consumers to conclude that if a company cannot protect its data - regardless of whether it has any value - then it should not be trusted on other aspects of its operations.</p>
<p>Although GDPR has hugely increased the size of the penalties for breaches, BA isn’t the first organisation the UK has publicly fined for breaking data protection rules, and <a href="https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/?facet_type=&facet_sector=&facet_date=&date_from=&date_to=">others include</a> Facebook, Uber and the Royal Mail. Given the importance of reputation to companies, there’s a chance these organisations would have rather accepted a higher fine in exchange for the amount not being made public.</p>
<h2>Establishing social norms</h2>
<p>The fine won’t just have an impact on BA either. Online data breaches are relatively new phenomena, but this sort of public shaming is an old method of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-media/201505/shame-social-shamers">social control</a>. It sets and reinforces social norms and standards about what all organisations should be expected to be able to achieve, a message that can be intended for both businesses and the public.</p>
<p>My research has shown how social norms <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02180/full">have a powerful influence</a> over people’s behaviours and attitudes. We judge ourselves and others in relation to adherence to our collective perceptions of how we, as a society, believe we should be performing.</p>
<p>It’s not easy for a society to reach a consensus on what a social norm should be for a new phenomenon, especially in situations where we are uncertain about our own degree of knowledge and understanding. For most people, hacking and hackers remain a relatively murky and ill-defined threat that is hard to define or quantify, and the dangers of having your data released into the wild <a href="https://theconversation.com/stolen-talktalk-customer-details-time-bombs-that-may-tick-a-while-before-being-triggered-49706">aren’t easy to see</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2019/02/27/consumer-attitudes-towards-security-breaches">there is evidence</a> that consumers are becoming more concerned about businesses that do not keep their data secure, particularly after the introduction of GDPR. High-profile businesses receiving major fines could help spur this process further.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283495/original/file-20190710-44472-13v5wns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283495/original/file-20190710-44472-13v5wns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283495/original/file-20190710-44472-13v5wns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283495/original/file-20190710-44472-13v5wns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283495/original/file-20190710-44472-13v5wns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283495/original/file-20190710-44472-13v5wns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283495/original/file-20190710-44472-13v5wns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stereotypical portrayals of hackers don’t help.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dangerous-hooded-hacker-breaks-into-government-680075014?src=2UwBiRDu1Y-WhNRsl7k0CQ-1-24&studio=1">Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New normal</h2>
<p>But that’s not the end of the story. At the time of the breach, BA described it as a “sophisticated, malicious, criminal attack”. This sort of narrative implies it’s difficult for organisations to protect themselves against highly motivated and technically skilled criminals. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170802-why-cant-films-and-tv-accurately-portray-hackers">Hollywood portrayals</a> of hackers as hoodie-wearing lone geniuses support this idea that it’s impossible for any organisation to fully prevent attacks.</p>
<p>While not exactly putting a positive spin on a company’s involvement in a data breach, this idea does limit the damage done to its reputation. It assumes that organisations are already doing everything they can reasonably do to protect their systems and customers.</p>
<p>Hacker communities take a <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-a-massive-cybersecurity-job-gap-we-should-fill-it-by-employing-hackers-114643">very different position</a>, arguing that many large organisations fail to take the basic steps that could be expected of them, despite having the resources to do so. If this is the case, we can expect to see more companies hit by penalties that could be even larger (the UK’s rules allow fines of up to <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-law-enforcement-processing/penalties/">4% of a company’s turnover</a>).</p>
<p>But social norms are fluid. What can seem shocking or extreme at one moment can quickly become the <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785392.001.0001/acprof-9780198785392-chapter-4">new normal</a>. Heavy fines always cause financial pain to organisations, but if they become widely used and publicly reported then there’s a risk that they become seen as the cost of doing business, as arguably has happened with fines relating to <a href="http://www.mondaq.com/uk/x/758856/Healthcare/1m+fines+the+new+norm+for+health+safety+failures">health and safety</a>. This would make fines less damaging to a company’s reputation and so less useful in forcing firms to do their best to protect customer data.</p>
<p>As such, only a strategic use of fines will help the public see how serious it is when organisations fail to live up to the data standards our new laws have set. If this is achieved then it may help the public understand the seriousness of data security, and in turn take greater responsibility over their own safety online.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John McAlaney receives funding from CREST, GambleAware, Dstl and the US Army.</span></em></p>The response to British Airways’ data breach could help set new social norms for what is acceptable.John McAlaney, Associate Professor in Psychology, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1132112019-03-08T13:46:29Z2019-03-08T13:46:29ZWhy Virgin Atlantic’s new makeup policy is mostly concealer and gloss<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262893/original/file-20190308-150700-19uaa8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-nose-view-passenger-airplane-boeing-1079382797">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The airline <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/05/virgin-atlantic-drops-mandatory-makeup-rule-for-female-flight-crew.html">Virgin Atlantic has decided</a> that female cabin crew will no longer be required to wear makeup during flights. They will also be offered the option of wearing trousers as part of their standard uniform allocation rather than only on request. According to one Virgin executive, the move will “provide our team with more choice on how they want to express themselves”. </p>
<p>That companies like Virgin continue to operate different policies for men and women might have come as a shock to those who assumed that discriminatory dress codes were a thing of the past. Yet <a href="http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/124290/">research attests</a> to the continuing aesthetic expectations governing the recruitment, selection, supervision and management of airline cabin crew. </p>
<p>In fact, makeup policies are just the tip of the iceberg. Height-weight regulations, grooming manuals and gender differentiated uniform requirements are the industry standard – especially among airlines flying lucrative business travel routes. </p>
<p>British Airways for instance, continues to require female cabin crew to wear makeup, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/05/female-british-airways-cabin-crew-win-the-right-to-wear-trousers">only allowed them to wear trousers</a> in 2016. And while “no frills” airlines tend to be more relaxed about rules on appearance, Ryanair only <a href="https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ryanairs-offensive-sexist-bikini-girl-cabin-crew-calendar-scrapped-1468209">stopped producing</a> its calendar featuring bikini clad female crew in 2015.</p>
<p>Virgin Atlantic demonstrated the importance of women’s bodies to its brand image a decade ago, in its 25th anniversary advertising campaign: Still Red Hot. Despite reducing the high levels of skill and training required of cabin crew to a retro-styled ode to the “trolley dolly”, the advert <a href="http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/industries/advertising/advertising-case-studies/advertising-case-virgin-atlantic">won industry accolades</a> and much praise on social media. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FYQHDadIDxk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>The actual demands of the job – ensuring the safety and security of passengers, taking control of safe evacuation in the event of an emergency – are often forgotten. Meanwhile, the Virgin Atlantic Sindy doll and the Ann Summers flight attendant costume, demonstrate how the sexualisation of female cabin crew remains firmly encoded in popular consciousness.</p>
<p>One of the many problems with this is that making an employee’s appearance your business transforms him or her (and it is disproportionately “her”) into a spectacle. This effectively means they are working two jobs: the job itself, and the sexualised theatre of the job. An aesthetic economy depends upon (again, predominantly young women) aspiring to this. This means that the desire to be seen, to dress up, to “stage oneself” forms a practically limitless basis for exploitation and profit accumulation. </p>
<p>Hence, like so many people (again disproportionately women) working double shifts, female cabin crew are relatively underpaid, enticed by the glamorous veneer of an industry characterised by low pay and high levels of sexual harassment. </p>
<p>And while Virgin may have updated its makeup rules, its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/05/virgin-atlantic-sex-discrimination-women-makeup-paying-less">gender pay gap</a> from figures published in 2018 suggest a median average hourly rate for women of 28% below that of their male colleagues. Women also count for 81% of the employees in the <a href="https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Employer/AsdkKQSO/2017">company’s lowest pay quartile</a>. </p>
<h2>Flying the flag for equality?</h2>
<p>A Virgin spokesperson applauded the change of makeup policy as “significant” in an industry in which female crew are expected to invest considerable time and resources in maintaining the prescribed appearance, “adding to the costs and unpaid labour” associated with their jobs. Arguably this move is significant in so far as it formally recognises the centrality of this aesthetic aspect of the work involved. </p>
<p>Certainly, incremental developments such as changes to uniform and grooming regulations are important formal steps towards addressing this. But they need to be understood in relation to two other important industry-wide factors. </p>
<p>First, such changes have to be set against the wider historical context – a change in policy will never be enough on its own to offset the impact of years of discriminatory employment practices, and their wider ramifications for women across the industry and labour market. </p>
<p>Second, while changes to formal policies are all well and good, they are arguably undermined by the very powerful visual images on corporate websites and advertising campaigns. These send out a clear and persistent message about who and what the company (and industry) values. </p>
<p>Indeed, whatever commitment to equality Virgin may or may not have wanted to make was quickly unravelled by a tweet circulated immediately afterwards depicting the company’s new cabin crew apprentices. The female contingent, identically dressed in red skirts, ruby shoes and bold crimson lipstick, embodied the extent to which old habits are hard to break.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1102546740266192896"}"></div></p>
<p>Reading between the lines, what Virgin wants is not for women to wear makeup, but to recruit women who want to wear makeup, and who aspire to embodying the corporate brand and its reified versions of feminine sexuality. For those women who “choose” to wear makeup, Virgin offers a template of corporate colours and websites replete with “painting by numbers” photographs of cabin crew who are, presumably, highlighted as ideal examples of how to be the face of the company. </p>
<p>The message is loud and clear: you don’t have to look like this, but we’d really like you to. And more to the point, we’d like it to be not because it is what we want, but what you want.</p>
<p>As a mode of self-discipline this makes the policy much more effective – Virgin is able to recruit only those people who want to embody the corporate brand, as it is narrowly defined yet ubiquitously, idealistically depicted. And as industry leaders, other airlines emulate this as an ideal to aspire to.</p>
<p>The decision to allow female employees to go makeup free is a welcome development, but it is a baby step. What is really needed is a great big leap of faith towards the seemingly radical idea that people’s worth might relate to more than how they look.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The job of looking after safety in the skies remains a highly sexualised occupation.Philip Hancock, Professor of Work and Organisation, University of EssexMelissa Tyler, Professor in Work and Organisation Studies, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1028572018-09-10T11:43:40Z2018-09-10T11:43:40ZBritish Airways hacking: how not to respond to a cyber attack<p>Chaos appears to reign at British Airways, where hackers <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/09/06/british-airways-hacked-380000-sets-payment-details-stolen/">stole the details</a> of around 380,000 customer bookings. There have been some poor responses to cyber attacks on major companies in the past, but the airline’s actions in this case could be one of weakest in recent history. Part of this may be because companies are now required by the EU to report cyber attacks within 72 hours, and because information may still be being withheld due to ongoing criminal investigation.</p>
<p>After the company experienced <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/02/british_airways_data_centre_configuration/">power issues</a> within its IT systems in May 2018, you would think that BA would now have plans in place to respond to computer incidents more quickly and coherently. Yet this latest hack appears to show a catalogue of missed opportunities.</p>
<p>First, the hack looks to have lasted for more than two weeks, affecting bookings made between August 21 and September 5. Although this means that not all BA customers are at risk – just those who made bookings during that period – it’s also not yet clear exactly who has been negatively affected and whether they will lose money as a result.</p>
<p>When the hack was finally discovered, BA didn’t initially provide enough coherent and robust information on the actual scope of the data taken. The company’s <a href="https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/data-theft/latest-information?dr=&dt=British%20Airways&tier=&scheme=&logintype=public&audience=travel&CUSTSEG=&GGLMember=&ban=%7C%7CP1M%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7CHOME%7C%7C%7C%7CL4%7C%7C%7C%7Canonymous-inspiration%7C%7C%7C&KMtag=c&KMver=1.0&clickpage=HOME">main statement</a> about the hack defined the data that was not included – passport and travel details – but didn’t spell out that bank card details were involved, instead advising customers to contact their banks. This seems like trying to put a positive spin on very bad news, and means that the potential theft of what customers are most worried about – their card details - was not highlighted.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235396/original/file-20180907-90568-45b9fn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235396/original/file-20180907-90568-45b9fn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235396/original/file-20180907-90568-45b9fn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235396/original/file-20180907-90568-45b9fn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235396/original/file-20180907-90568-45b9fn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235396/original/file-20180907-90568-45b9fn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235396/original/file-20180907-90568-45b9fn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">BA’s statement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/data-theft/latest-information?dr=&dt=British%20Airways&tier=&scheme=&logintype=public&audience=travel&CUSTSEG=&GGLMember=&ban=%7C%7CP1M%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7CHOME%7C%7C%7C%7CL4%7C%7C%7C%7Canonymous-inspiration%7C%7C%7C&KMtag=c&KMver=1.0&clickpage=HOME">British Airways</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the frequently asked questions section of the statement’s web page, it stated that: “Names, addresses, and all bank card details were all at risk.” But this didn’t give the actual details of the hack, such as whether the CVV (card verification value) security codes found on the back of cards were revealed, although BA later provided this info <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45440850">to the media</a>. To not reveal if the bank details were encrypted or not, leaves too many questions still be to answered.</p>
<p>To be on the safe side, BA is advising all affected customers to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/british-airways-website-theft-customer-data-stolen-flights-credit-card-a8526376.html">cancel their cards</a>. This initially led to clogged bank phone lines due to the sheer number of affected customers. Unfortunately, at present, it is not clear exactly who has actually been negatively affected. Several customers have already <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/ba-hack-shares-slump-as-angry-passengers-hit-out-amid-serious-data-breach-a3930176.html">reported fraud</a> on their cards.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235390/original/file-20180907-90578-fc47x8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235390/original/file-20180907-90578-fc47x8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235390/original/file-20180907-90578-fc47x8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235390/original/file-20180907-90578-fc47x8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235390/original/file-20180907-90578-fc47x8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235390/original/file-20180907-90578-fc47x8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235390/original/file-20180907-90578-fc47x8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Share price fall.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The knee-jerk nature of the reaction was probably due to the EU’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-gdpr-mean-for-me-an-explainer-96630">new general data protection regulation</a> (GDPR) that says data breaches of this kind must be reported within 72 hours of discovery.</p>
<p>BA’s CEO, Alex Cruz, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45440850">told the BBC</a> that the company discovered the hack on Wednesday evening and had contacted all affected customers by Thursday night. “The first thing was to find out if it was something serious and who it affected or not. The moment that actual customer data had been compromised, that’s when we began immediate communication to our customers,” he said.</p>
<p>He added: “We are committed to working with any customer who may have been financially affected by this attack, and we will compensate them for any financial hardship that they may have suffered.”</p>
<p>We should be grateful that, thanks to GDPR, the incident was at least made public quickly. Credit reporting agency Equifax took three months to report its <a href="https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2017/09/massive-equifax-data-breach---what-you-need-to-know/">data breach</a> in 2017, during which time executives sold shares in the company, although an internal investigation cleared them of any insider or inappropriate trading, saying they had been unaware of the incident when they made the trades.</p>
<p>Dido Harding, the CEO of telecom firm TalkTalk, provided one of the best examples of how not to respond to a data breach. After the company was hacked in 2015, Harding <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5k06MJeLDw">appeared on TV</a> suggesting customers should trust emails from TalkTalk addresses and which contained links through to the TalkTalk website. These are now understood to be standard techniques used by scammers to convince customers their emails are genuine.</p>
<h2>Long-term impact</h2>
<p>The maximum fine for a company data breach under GDPR is 4% of <a href="https://www.gdpr.associates/what-is-gdpr/understanding-gdpr-fines/">worldwide turnover</a>. In 2017, BA’s turnover was over <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/264296/british-airways-worldwide-revenues-since-2006/">£12 billion</a>, so if the company was hit with such a fine it could be over £480m, although the EU has yet to make any indication of whether the hack could lead to a fine. BA has already offered compensation for customers affected by the incident, which may reach significant amounts especially as many customers who BA alerted of the incident weren’t told whether their card details had actually <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/thousands-of-british-airways-customers-cancel-credit-cards-after-criminal-data-breach-a3929806.html">been stolen</a>.</p>
<p>As in other examples of commercial data breaches, the initial reporting has hit the company’s share price. The market value of BA’s parent group - International Consolidated Airlines Group - was initially dented <a href="https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/iag-shares-dip-as-ba-urgently-investigates-data-br-451748/">by 3.8%</a>. But it is possibly the effect on customer trust that will have the most damage.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235465/original/file-20180908-90553-5llk4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235465/original/file-20180908-90553-5llk4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235465/original/file-20180908-90553-5llk4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235465/original/file-20180908-90553-5llk4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235465/original/file-20180908-90553-5llk4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235465/original/file-20180908-90553-5llk4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235465/original/file-20180908-90553-5llk4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Possible methods.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At present, few details have been released around the method of the hack. So it may involve traditional hacking methods of capturing data from a database. But if it involved capturing details of which keys users pressed on their keyboard, it would shake the foundation of our digital financial infrastructure to its core. </p>
<p>If there’s one thing that this hack shows, it is that we live in an extremely fragile digital world and where hacks can go undetected for some time. So we need to build financial transfer systems that integrate encryption at every single step of the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102857/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Buchanan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>BA’s handling of the latest corporate cyber attack shows a catalogue of missed opportunities.Bill Buchanan, Head, The Cyber Academy, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/804842017-07-05T10:49:48Z2017-07-05T10:49:48ZBank of England strike threat signals failures in plan to dent union power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176878/original/file-20170705-30015-1b2tx0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=150%2C98%2C2000%2C1206&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bank-england-city-london-uk-night-119973589?src=qSXPIUB9WxCUoEnW4xzJfw-1-25">Bikeworldtravel/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Bank of England isn’t known as a hotbed of worker activism, but it might be about to offer the firmest proof yet that the UK government’s efforts to dent union power have gone awry. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/trade-union-act-becomes-law">Trade Union Act 2016</a> was supposed to reduce strike action still further from <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/workplacedisputesandworkingconditions/articles/labourdisputes/latest">current historic lows</a>. Instead, it looks as if the length of individual strikes will increase, creating more days “lost” per strike. </p>
<p>At the Bank of England, Unite union members in the maintenance and security departments are to go on strike for <a href="http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/bank-of-england-staff-to-strike-for-first-time-in-50-years/">four days at the end of July</a> to try to end the continued imposition of below-inflation pay rises. The union has told the bank’s governor, Mark Carney, that he can “no longer turn a blind eye to what is happening on his own patch” and is calling on the bank to agree to talks on a pay deal which <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/cab4e12e-5fd2-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26895?mhq5j=e2">might avert the first walkout in more than 50 years</a>. </p>
<p>Under the Trade Union Act, unions now have to pass two new thresholds to gain a lawful mandate for strike action. In addition to getting a simple majority of those voting for action, the turnout has to be at least 50%. In a number of sectors deemed “essential”, such as transport and education, all those voting for action must also represent 40% of all those entitled to vote. In other words, non-voters are counted as “no” votes. </p>
<p>The changes have delivered a couple of significant defeats for the unions so far – for UNISON <a href="http://www.unison-scotland.org/service-groups-and-sectors/local-government-pay2017/">local government workers in Scotland</a> and RMT members <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/tube-strike-over-clash-with-fare-dodger-is-called-off-a3568786.html">on the London Underground</a>. And it’s not yet clear whether more or less ballots for action are now being organised. We won’t know that until the figures for 2016 are published by the government next summer.</p>
<h2>Fight or flight</h2>
<p>But what is clear so far is that among the ballots that have resulted in mandates for action, the predominant strategy of one-day strikes, (or a series of one-day strikes) is coming to an end. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176876/original/file-20170705-29986-1wxwb9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176876/original/file-20170705-29986-1wxwb9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176876/original/file-20170705-29986-1wxwb9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176876/original/file-20170705-29986-1wxwb9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176876/original/file-20170705-29986-1wxwb9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176876/original/file-20170705-29986-1wxwb9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176876/original/file-20170705-29986-1wxwb9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Clouds gather for BA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_hartland/6228401858/in/photolist-auobSW-UfsBGL-v1GG5m-5no488-4dCLRe-TTngyc-rj95wM-qcb8eS-SCCeMX-nuZN7H-3fdAbF-oMve9Q-pw7wRM-hx9fs2-pwnwud-efXfo6-r1iWRz-fQCAN8-rkazn9-kFNPoJ-fcTzMo-qkakRo-qYHT3t-qm5nCJ-RCpKAs-TG5zR5-R4aGni-SJhQ6b-HziLfd-oBgPJ9-kuucuG-nuBG9z-EYHVZK-U6Hftx-nzDVQE-nZk1CU-p8eWSj-meZvup-UkzJcF-pLRF21-ovznuU-miBFWz-rDfVPe-prADS2-4qsWjZ-qK2Nrz-kQqMMZ-UdN4sL-noFjWj-fNRJ1L">Martin Hartland/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The strike at the Bank of England is only the most recent case to gain prominence. At British Airways, fellow members of the Unite union have <a href="http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/british-airways-accused-of-seeking-to-punish-workers-on-poverty-pay/">just begun a 16-day strike</a> while other Unite members at Manchester housing repair company, Mears, have announced they <a href="http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/mears-manchester-housing-workers-set-to-begin-all-out-strike-action/">will strike for four weeks</a> from Saturday July 8. </p>
<p>Workers at both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/05/british-airways-ba-cabin-crew-begin-six-days-strikes">British Airways</a> <a href="http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2017/05/09/meers-manchester-housing-upkeep-workers-to-strike/">and Mears</a> have already taken considerable strike action. There are dozens of other examples of action taken by Unite, backed by strike pay from the union’s own <a href="http://unitelive.org/dark-day-rights/">£35m fund</a>. There is also mounting evidence elsewhere – from the education unions (EIS, NUT, UCU) to the PCS civil servants’ union <a href="http://reidfoundation.org/2017/06/trade-union-act-2016-examining-the-impact-of-the-new-act-upon-strikes-and-industrial-action/">that this clear pattern is emerging</a>.</p>
<p>The three cited Unite examples of strike all have quite different causes: pay at the Bank of England, victimisation at British Airways and new contracts at Mears. But the new law is making them act in a very similar fashion. This is because of two other important parts of the Trade Union Act. First, unions are required to give 14 days’ notice of action to employers – up from seven. And the length of a lawful mandate is capped at six months, which can be increased to nine but only with the agreement of the employer. Previously, there was no cap on the length of the mandate. </p>
<p>So, in order for action to be effective, it has to be more hard-hitting because employers have longer to prepare for it. This means unions are front-loading their action into longer and more concentrated actions in smaller time frames. They are also doing this because they know they have to get their skates on. Unions cannot afford to have their mandates eroded by employers that play for time by stringing out negotiations. The clock is always ticking in their heads towards the six-month expiry date. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176882/original/file-20170705-30009-azh1lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176882/original/file-20170705-30009-azh1lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176882/original/file-20170705-30009-azh1lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176882/original/file-20170705-30009-azh1lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176882/original/file-20170705-30009-azh1lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176882/original/file-20170705-30009-azh1lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176882/original/file-20170705-30009-azh1lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176882/original/file-20170705-30009-azh1lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tick tock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29008389@N03/5937058272/in/photolist-a3CYzE-n4frBm-qqKqan-7wVtPq-fUfXdX-8n7hC5-58y9YD-dZf9Uc-k66EEC-SMsxrk-4H5MtF-7NhG7h-UTUdm7-GfqBS-kpx3ch-dUEnqt-juBCAE-9AgDky-bugVJs-8QLNKa-fEUN9F-oGm94c-6KDfND-ciJxhb-4LLTh1-buCpGE-doY8SD-f1EtaB-8QLNoF-8AGyag-2s1oN-5mc2Gv-fEUKtp-8Mfmvr-uUxw1U-mL8Eq4-dtiW6i-oBfkAQ-8AGxdT-cb8HoL-9iofY7-asfinm-oEfYXN-niyrbd-P9aKsy-62gDom-4gErVt-qGBcDi-5KCCXT-amUBd3">Cindy Schultz/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ballot boxing</h2>
<p>There is also evidence that some workers have decided to increasingly ignore the new law by taking unofficial, unballoted action. Wildcat action has been seen <a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/44588/Post+workers+unofficial+walkout+forces+Royal+Mail+bosses+to+lift+reps+suspension">at the Royal Mail</a> and among <a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/44400/Unofficial+action+by+migrant+workers+at+London+hospital+beats+back+multinational">hospital workers in London</a>. This has the element of surprise and the nature of the action is not limited by the balloting restrictions. Of course, it is unlawful, but so far no one has been sacked for organising such action – as they can be under the Employment Act 1990.</p>
<p>Even if the Trade Union Act does lead to fewer strike ballots, fewer votes for strikes and fewer strikes themselves, it has already not only lengthened the duration of those strikes that do occur but it has also made them more difficult to resolve because it has forced union members to act in a more assertive and aggressive manner. </p>
<p>All this was entirely predictable. During public consultation on the new Act in 2015, human resources professional body, the Chartered Institute of Professional Development (CIPD), warned the new provisions were always likely to “<a href="http://www2.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2015/09/09/trade-union-reforms-are-outdated-response-warns-cipd.aspx">harden attitudes</a>”. In truth, this is exactly what happens when a government introduces an act to solve a problem that does not actually exist, and for which there is no public demand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregor Gall is editor of the Scottish Left Review magazine and director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation.</span></em></p>New legislation has forced stronger action and might see the first walkout at Threadneedle Street in more than 50 years.Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/789472017-06-07T15:36:11Z2017-06-07T15:36:11ZOnly BA’s computers crashed, not its aircraft – but we have grown dependent on IT that can never fail<p>The world increasingly depends on the services provided by major corporations, which in turn depend heavily on their IT infrastructure. British Airways’ recent IT meltdown is just the latest in a string of serious technical failures experienced by <a href="https://goo.gl/GozH6M">big companies</a> and <a href="https://goo.gl/yPX8Xo">government agencies</a>, with such failures effecting hundreds of thousands or millions of people and accruing potentially huge costs.</p>
<p>For BA, this has resulted in dissatisfied customers, a tarnished reputation and calls for the jobs of those in charge. The anticipated compensation bill <a href="https://goo.gl/FQuafU">may top £100m</a>. If organisations are so dependent on systems’ uninterrupted functioning, how could this happen?</p>
<p>It’s hard to overstate the importance to BA’s operations of this networked systems infrastructure. The company’s systems <a href="https://goo.gl/YGjgEr">provide services to customers and staff</a> that range from flight maps and operational data for pilots, to online check-in, booking and baggage handling for customers.</p>
<p>BA’s issues started at Boadicea House, one of its two data centres located at Heathrow Airport. As with most data centres, Boadicea House boasts a so-called <a href="https://goo.gl/0mBlKq">uninterruptible power supply</a>, or UPS, which typically provides power through multiple redundant systems such as conventional mains power, backup generators and backup batteries. When power was completely lost at Boadicea House, a management strategy for handling power loss was in place that involved the gradual, phased return of power to the data centre’s servers. But crucially this strategy appears not to have been executed as planned, resulting in the “uncontrolled” return of power. Reports <a href="https://goo.gl/p1umaS">indicate</a> that this led to a power surge that further exacerbated the problem by physically damaging servers and incapacitating backup systems.</p>
<h2>(All too) human error</h2>
<p>While the sequence of events that led to this outcome is still unclear, the cause is reportedly related to human error on the part of <a href="https://goo.gl/HKbDUS">an engineer or contractor at the data centre</a>. Data centres are designed for massive redundancy and are highly secure facilities. Indeed, as with many mission-critical systems, they are designed partly based on the assumption that they will fail, and so huge emphasis is placed on minimising the impact of these failures by developing efficient and effective recovery strategies. While such plans and precautions are never perfect, historically a good first place to look in the event of failures is the role of human error. Statistics indicate <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.03584.pdf">somewhere between 30-60% of errors are down to humans</a>. This increases to 80-90% in some fields that demand high integrity systems. </p>
<p>Another recent example of human error leading to huge repercussions was the massive <a href="https://goo.gl/t7TurQ">Amazon Web Service (AWS) outage</a>. Amazon <a href="https://goo.gl/N4ib4e">has stated</a> that this was due to an erroneous command entered by a qualified, authorised engineer. This error resulted in the temporary loss of huge swathes of internet-connected services hosted by Amazon, from home security systems to business communication apps, email services and company websites.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172734/original/file-20170607-29566-l2l77e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172734/original/file-20170607-29566-l2l77e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172734/original/file-20170607-29566-l2l77e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172734/original/file-20170607-29566-l2l77e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172734/original/file-20170607-29566-l2l77e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172734/original/file-20170607-29566-l2l77e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172734/original/file-20170607-29566-l2l77e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anonymous data centres like this run many of the online services the world has come to rely on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cipherswarm/2414578731">cipherswarm</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>One problem begets another</h2>
<p>Built like many modern IT services to provide the <a href="https://goo.gl/N4ib4e">best possible standard of service</a> using carefully designed dependencies, a side effect of the sheer scale of the systems is that they may be vulnerable to small failures propagating and cascading, with major problems occurring as a result of potentially minor problems.</p>
<p>This appears also to be the case for BA. While designed to survive on reduced performance or even a temporary outage of the data centre at Boadicea House by using the second data centre to take up slack, the procedure for bringing power back up to Boadicea House appears to have not gone as planned, <a href="https://goo.gl/wl4grX">resulting in further damage</a>.</p>
<p>Much research into mission-critical systems design is directed at what is referred to as “<a href="https://goo.gl/OWXBLB">human factors engineering</a>”. This includes designing systems and processes in such a way that they focus on accommodating its users, for example by guiding their interaction with the system to avoid potential errors. </p>
<p>In many cases, this includes aspects that have in the past been somewhat overlooked – for example, the careful design of user interfaces (UI) and the user’s experience of using the software (UX). For example, engineers may focus on minimising the likelihood of the so-called “<a href="https://goo.gl/z9kd47">fat-finger errors</a>” by designing UIs so that controls are hard to confuse or accidentally trigger. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the increasing complexity of IT infrastructure and its importance to us means the stakes are far higher – and this dramatically increases the technological and engineering challenges, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Douthwaite does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>BA’s systems meltdown shows how much we rely on always-there IT.Mark Douthwaite, PhD Candidate in High Integrity Systems Engineering (HISE), University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/784872017-05-29T20:58:24Z2017-05-29T20:58:24ZBA meltdown: crisis researcher caught in the chaos reports on a massive airline failure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171328/original/file-20170529-25210-1izp8lk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C759%2C2206%2C1702&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Has someone tried switching it off and on again?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Denis Fischbacher-Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For an academic who has spent more than 30 years researching organisational crises it was something of an odd experience to be in the middle of the British Airways IT foul-up on Saturday May 27. And it provided a textbook example of how organisational systems need backup and effective communications if chaos is to be avoided when they fail.</p>
<p>I started my journey in the morning in Copenhagen, with no reported issues from the airline, and the first mention of a problem came close to the end of the flight as the pilot announced that we were being delayed on the way into Heathrow. This was explained as being a result of thunderstorms taking place in the south east of England. </p>
<p>After more than 20 minutes of circling over the North Sea, we were told the delays were a result of congestion due to the storm. On landing, however, passengers were told that there had been a lightning strike which had resulted in a catastrophic failure of the communications system at Heathrow. The pilot said he could not contact BA ground staff to find out which gate to head for. </p>
<p>So, the aircraft sat on the taxiway until contact could be made. Some 40 minutes passed as the pilots seemed to try all means possible – including mobile phones and email – to establish contact. The pilot then announced that we had been given a gate, but that there would be a further delay as it wasn’t possible to communicate with the ground staff to ensure that there would be buses available to move passengers. This was the first indication that passengers on the plane had that the problem wasn’t a temporary loss of communications. </p>
<p>Having cleared customs and moved to the BA lounge to wait for my connecting flight to Glasgow, it was clear that Terminal 5 was in a state of chaos. Few BA flights had left as scheduled and the lounges and open access areas were teeming with passengers. BA staff in the lounges were not able to provide any further information and rumours were flying around among passengers that rather than a storm, the IT system may have been brought down by a ransomware attack – much like the one which had <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/12/nhs-hit-major-cyber-attack-hackers-demanding-ransom/">caused huge problems</a> for the UK’s National Health Service earlier in May.</p>
<p>The company <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40075721">has blamed a “power supply issue”</a>, but in truth, we are still waiting for the full picture to emerge.</p>
<h2>Technical flaws</h2>
<p>Either way, if these issues were the root causes of the company’s IT outage then it would have implied that the company’s surge or virus protection processes were somewhat inadequate to deal with the problem and that there was no effective backup. The speculation swept through the lounge, and the lack of communication to passengers was starting to show the company in a bad light. </p>
<p>At about 2.30pm rumours spread that media outlets were stating that no BA planes were going to be leaving Heathrow and Gatwick before six o'clock that evening: cue a flood of passengers to the lounge desks trying to find out what was happening. BA staff were adamant that this wasn’t an official BA statement and a public announcement was made in the lounge that it was a false news report. However, this narrative of events was not to last. Just 20 minutes later, it was announced that all BA flights before 6pm were cancelled. It looked like reporters were getting the correct information before customers or even staff; British Airways internal communications were looking shaky. At this point some passengers, who had been starved of information, resorted to asking the lounge catering staff for information. They didn’t work for BA, but they were the only people in the lounge at that point who weren’t passengers.</p>
<h2>Staff absent</h2>
<p>Eventually, passengers were told to go to collect their baggage and exit the airport. Again, an absence of staff left confused passengers with no way to seek clarification. Again, the catering staff seemed to be the ones that passengers approached.</p>
<p>Almost inevitably there were large queues for baggage collection and there was still a lack of clear information from the small number of BA staff present. The most insightful information came from two pilots who were also stranded, and who were working tirelessly to help passengers. But where were other staff? There also did not appear to be any managers in attendance to deal with the ongoing issues. </p>
<p>After waiting in a queue for about 30 minutes, passengers were herded into the domestic baggage claim area where, despite previously being told that their bags would be available, they were not. Instead, passengers had to search out a form, fill it in, and get in line once again. The person giving out the forms was at the front of the queue, leaving those at the back of the queue in the dark. Some passengers were given different forms to complete as the company seem to have run out of the appropriate forms at the desk. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171349/original/file-20170529-25261-1glt8qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171349/original/file-20170529-25261-1glt8qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171349/original/file-20170529-25261-1glt8qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171349/original/file-20170529-25261-1glt8qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171349/original/file-20170529-25261-1glt8qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171349/original/file-20170529-25261-1glt8qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171349/original/file-20170529-25261-1glt8qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Going nowhere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielmennerich/8044656324/in/photolist-dfSY47-R1Zn3D-Udw16y-v1GG5m-atsz1F-UqPpD5-dbBv9X-oFK7Zz-TKDLqg-RL7RgZ-4EMSsc-nurAZt-ijUXnj-UMr3p4-UMr4tD-nurAPt-9PQfFR-onKhVX-ayTfi8-4umoYm-5no488-7mmKzN-6voRBz-a3WWY2-9Pq3eD-sge9rb-TbJTNd-Ji6Lsj-4dCLRe-TKDK1c-SP5422-7t8gMw-nuZN7H-TTngyc-omqyyE-pPvvrH-owor1H-6ThgPh-6Tdg4P-2xhgXR-pLZMXw-SCCeMX-nJ6v5c-jDEv9H-3fdAbF-4umofu-7Bxuu9-rj95wM-qcb8eS-ry5sGp">Daniel Mennerich/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After waiting in line for another half hour, a member of BA staff stated that passengers could fill in the form on-line and that they didn’t have to wait in the queue. Of course, the web site was down at this point. When asked for clarity, the rather confused looking members of staff were forced to say that they had no additional information. Passengers were seemingly left to their own devices to make their way home – there was no advice from the staff other than to keep receipts for any costs that were incurred. In my case, this involved getting the Heathrow Express into London Paddington, the underground to Kings Cross, the train back to Glasgow Central, and then a further train - an eight-hour journey that saw me arrive home at midnight. </p>
<p>These were some of the issues that I directly witnessed airside. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/27/british-airways-system-problem-delays-heathrow">Media reports</a> have confirmed a very similar experience for customers in the booking hall. And, of course, other passengers were stranded at airports across the world and faced many of the problems we had to cope with at Heathrow. Many passengers left Terminal 5 with no bags, no material support from the company, and no idea when their bags might be returned. It wasn’t long before some passengers were heard to rename the company Bags Anywhere.</p>
<p>By any measure, this incident has been a <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/29/british-airways-could-face-150000000-compensation-bill-after-it-disaster-6668884/">public relations fiasco</a> for British Airways. The company’s apparent fall from grace – from that period where it could bullishly advertise itself as “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/05/28/travel-chaos-adds-demise-worlds-favourite-airline/">the world’s favourite airline</a>” to its performance on Saturday – is stark. </p>
<p>The managerial behaviour shown by BA on the day was typical of organisations in crises: the lack of effective communication; the growth in conflicting information and rumour; an absence of any apparent contingency plan on the ground; and a sense of confusion among staff. These are all elements that are often displayed in the early stages of a crisis event. The fact that social media and other web sites were the main source of information for passengers simply highlighted the poor practices of communication on the ground. It was certainly not clear from a passenger’s perspective who had taken ownership of this event. There was no obvious central source of information and passengers had to queue for what limited information was available.</p>
<h2>Embedded errors</h2>
<p>This was not, however, the first IT failure that the company had experienced. Media were quick to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/british-airways-computer-outage-causing-global-delays-47676395">point to previous problems</a>, hardening the perception that BA was a company in crisis. This particular failure was not an isolated event. It served as a graphic representation of the potential for disruption that seems to have been embedded within the strategic decisions taken around the design, testing, and implementation of the new system, the development and testing of contingency plans, and the provision of an effective communications policy for use in such events. Put another way, the costs of errors were embedded into the system and they became all too apparent as the system failed. </p>
<p>The events of May 27 illustrated the problems that can occur in those socio-technical systems that are optimised for a just-in-time form of delivery. When the system operates in a degraded mode, or fails catastrophically, then it is often too complicated for staff to revert to a more manual basis of operations because they are so reliant on the technical elements of the system and have often not been trained in an alternative way of working. </p>
<p>What lessons does the BA incident offer other organisations? Firstly, if an operating system or process is central to performance and reputation, then the organisation needs to ensure that it has considered how it will function if it fails catastrophically. Managerial assumptions about the nature of risk are important factors in shaping their willingness to consider the worst case scenario and to prepare effective contingency plans. Lightning strikes or computer hackers are not unknown, or even particularly surprising, dangers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171348/original/file-20170529-25210-1qcll3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171348/original/file-20170529-25210-1qcll3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171348/original/file-20170529-25210-1qcll3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171348/original/file-20170529-25210-1qcll3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171348/original/file-20170529-25210-1qcll3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171348/original/file-20170529-25210-1qcll3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171348/original/file-20170529-25210-1qcll3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not the first time BA has fumbled.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jorge Quinteros</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Secondly, it highlights the importance of having an effective communication strategy in which staff at the sharp end of the operation are kept fully informed as to what the company is doing to contain the crisis. Organisations should not be providing information to the media while failing to inform local staff about the situation – or worst still, providing alternative accounts of the problem. There is also a need to ensure that there is sufficient information provided to customers who are directly affected by the event. </p>
<p>Thirdly, there need to be additional resources provided to deal with the demands of a crisis. Not only do staff need the right tools to respond effectively, but they themselves need to be robustly trained to cope when it comes to the crunch. Customers and service users need to be told the correct information and provided with the appropriate documents that are needed to process claims. </p>
<h2>Learn from near misses</h2>
<p>Finally, BA’s woes point to the importance of organisational learning from early warnings and near-miss events. This is a challenge for all organisations as there is often a sense of denial that such catastrophic failures can happen on home turf. After all, staff at every level of an organisation often believe that theirs is a tight ship, well-managed and reliant on well-designed technical systems. It is this process of denial that invariably prevents managers from reflecting on their own capabilities under crisis and prevents them from questioning what they would do in similar circumstances. </p>
<p>The aviation industry has a well-established process for collecting information on near-miss events in relation to the performance of pilots and aircraft. It is so effective that it has been seen as the gold standard for other sectors, such as healthcare. Given the history of problems with BA’s IT systems, one might be forgiven for thinking that it has not been as diligent when considering its own managerial early warning processes for core business processes. Organisations need to overcome the barriers to learning that can damage the ability to cope with a crisis. A failure to do so can be hugely damaging, as BA is now discovering.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Fischbacher-Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How not to handle it – British Airways have offered up a textbook example of getting almost everything wrong.Denis Fischbacher-Smith, Research Chair in Risk and Resilience, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/709502017-01-09T15:36:19Z2017-01-09T15:36:19ZWhy British Airways cabin crew are striking<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152087/original/image-20170109-23464-1vkuuzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ondrej Zabransky / Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>British Airways cabin crew are <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/british-airways-strikes-almost-50-heathrow-flights-expected-to-be-cancelled-in-cabin-crew-walkout-a3435131.html">staging a 48-hour strike from January 10</a>, in a dispute over cabin crew pay. The strike has been called by the airline’s “mixed fleet” staff. This is a separate class of crew, which joined after 2010 and comprise 15% of BA’s total cabin crew. </p>
<p>There had originally been plans for a strike on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. These were called off following an improved pay offer from BA, but the crew members have since voted to reject it. Here, we look at the reasons behind the strike and the extent to which it is justified.</p>
<h2>Why does BA have ‘mixed fleet’ crew?</h2>
<p>Competition from budget airlines has led to cost-cutting across the board for airlines. The market share of low-fare airlines like Ryanair and easyJet within Europe <a href="http://www.oag.com/blog/low-cost-every-little-helps">is over 35%</a>. </p>
<p>To compete, BA created the new mixed fleet category of cabin crew hired on inferior terms and conditions to their colleagues within BA’s other two crews, Eurofleet (who service short-haul flights within Europe) and Worldwide (who service everywhere else). </p>
<p>The irony is that BA played an important role in the legitimising of budget airlines and the highly-competitive air travel market that exists today. In response to the competitive challenge posed by the early low fares’ airlines, many European legacy airlines (those operating prior to the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DAF/COMP(2014)22&docLanguage=En">liberalisation of the industry</a> that began in the late 1980s) created their own low-cost subsidiaries. These include the short-lived Buzz by KLM and the more durable Germanwings (Lufthansa). </p>
<p>British Airways also adopted this approach and set up its highly successful subsidiary, Go. As well as legitimising low cost travel, it took many passengers away from BA’s main services. Go was subsequently sold to its management, backed by the investment group 3i, for £111m in 2001, who then sold it to the budget airline easyJet the following year for more than £350m. </p>
<h2>What are the problems?</h2>
<p>Despite performing the same job, BA’s mixed fleet earn far less than their colleagues on legacy crews. For example, in 2015 their basic starting salary was £12,000 (with an additional £3 an hour when flying). This is compared to an average expenditure per head of all cabin crew of <a href="https://www.caa.co.uk/uploadedFiles/CAA/Content/Standard_Content/Data_and_analysis/Datasets/Airline_data/Airline_data_2015_00/Table_1_14_Airline_Personnel_Cost_UK_and_Overseas_2015.pdf">£37,200</a>. Indeed, when industrial action was last threatened by BA cabin crew in 2014, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/22/british-airways-strike-action-threat-pay-claim-ba">unions at the time claimed</a> that mixed fleet staff were reliant on working tax credits (state benefits) to supplement their income. So, in effect, the government was subsidising BA’s operations. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.etf-europe.org/files/extranet/-75/44106/LFA%20final%20report%20221014.pdf">survey</a> of European cabin crew we carried out on behalf of the European Transport Workers’ Federation in 2014 revealed the extent of disaffection among BA’s mixed fleet crew at the time. Fewer than 10% of respondents reported that their pay and benefits were adequate to support their current lifestyle and none felt their remuneration was adequate to support future life plans. One study participant commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are commonly known as ‘cheap fleet’ throughout the company for our low costs and how much profit we make for the company. Another recent motto was ‘mixed fleet – to fly, to starve’ (a pun on the BA motto ‘To Fly to Serve’). How they treat us is appalling and it should change. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Flexible working compounds the issue. Rosters are subject to frequent changes at short notice and staff are advised to check their roster on days off and holidays. Members of mixed fleet told us they looked forward to unpaid leave as it gave them some control over their working time.</p>
<p>It seems that little has changed in the intervening two years. In 2016, British Airways’ parent company, IAG, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35662763">reported</a> operating profits of £1.4 billion. Meanwhile the mixed fleet cabin crew, who act as the face of the company, delivering the customer service quality on which the airline trades, struggle to make ends meet. It is disingenuous, then, that the airline’s response to the threat of industrial action was to call it an “unjustified” attack on customers.</p>
<p>BA has always and continues to trade on customer service. It is doing so very successfully, as its balance sheet of recent years clearly demonstrates. Mixed fleet are an integral part of the cabin crew workforce whose efforts in delivering high levels of customer service in no small way contribute to the airline’s success. This is something critics of their industrial action might think about when assessing whether or not it is justified.</p>
<p><strong>This article was amended on January 10 to reflect that the figure of £37,000 is the average expenditure per head of cabin crew rather than the average salary.</strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geraint Harvey receives funding from the European Transport Workers' Federation/ European Commission. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Turnbull has worked with the European Transport Workers' Federation on projects funded by the European Commission (via the Sector Social Dialogue Committee for Civil Aviation). </span></em></p>Despite performing the same job, one of BA’s three cabin crew fleets earns far less than their colleagues.Geraint Harvey, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations and HRM, University of BirminghamPeter Turnbull, Professor of Management, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/401142015-04-20T13:37:26Z2015-04-20T13:37:26ZAirport wars heat up as political window opens for new runways<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78374/original/image-20150417-3235-2hb661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Different flight paths, same goals. Heathrow and Gatwick.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/natspressoffice/13085089725/in/photolist-68A8R5-FAS3H-cxZujW-4JoUmz-34HqL7-kWhvig-66ydEr-drEfmd-8oUgv-8xCvgu-5NuWau-5WjL2R-ohgMxz-nY1p2s-2nBHW-CVTuP-aNP8DM-aNP9T6-4JoUJD-9kA1B9-betchF-pHGzSL-4JoUoD-6m7GyR-SVce-nLX6Y-pKygmg-8mfKLh-qwWbdK-aNP9WT-ofv26z-e9Roto-betcqH-aNP8S4-9b2cH4-gnaaHg-9qqLij-hsCEQT-663LTN-ddid26-ddicGX-qbNF7i-jKTmYW-4T7ik7-3feRP-981uVy-4Jt7W3-59zezw-fWJemA-ddipXt">NATS Press Office</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unlike the looming election, the great British <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19570653">airport debate</a> has seemingly become a two horse race. Should <a href="http://www.gatwickairport.com/business-community/about-gatwick/at-a-glance/">Gatwick</a> gain a second runway or <a href="http://www.heathrowairport.com/about-us">Heathrow</a> a third? In truth, either solution will still put Britain’s hard-won market leadership at risk. </p>
<p>Clearly more runway space will mean more annoying noise for local residents and possibly more pollution. But aircraft are getting quieter and cleaner as the industry responds to important environmental concerns – there is even a <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150308-solar-impulse-flight-pilot-circumnavigate-world-piccard-swiss/">solar powered plane</a> circumnavigating the globe.</p>
<p>The radical solution is to ban non-essential flying, a position even the most ardent tree huggers see as untenable. The 70s Costa del Sol charters and the low cost carriers of the noughties have democratised air travel to such an extent it is hard to see it being limited by anything but global energy pricing and ratcheting taxation.</p>
<h2>World leading pioneers</h2>
<p>The UK has held a key role in aviation’s hundred-year history, remember <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/whittle_frank.shtml">Sir Frank Whittle</a> developed the first jet engines in Farnborough. Gatwick, usurping <a href="http://www.croydonairport.org.uk/The-Airport/The-History">Croydon’s grassy aerodrome</a> as an early out-of-city-centre airport, introduced the first flexible piers, using canvas tunnels in a <a href="http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/history.asp">circular, beehive terminal</a>, and boasted the original glass-sided linear terminal building with jetways. Airlines operated by BOAC and BEA – the <a href="http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/about-ba/history-and-heritage/explore-our-past/1970-1979">companies that merged to form British Airways in 1974</a> – delivered mail and civil servants to the colonies, helping to secure a crucial role for Britain in global trade that survives to this day. Part of London’s intangible attractiveness hails from its competitive network of direct flights to many points around the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78381/original/image-20150417-3220-1c39pu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78381/original/image-20150417-3220-1c39pu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78381/original/image-20150417-3220-1c39pu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78381/original/image-20150417-3220-1c39pu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78381/original/image-20150417-3220-1c39pu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78381/original/image-20150417-3220-1c39pu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78381/original/image-20150417-3220-1c39pu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78381/original/image-20150417-3220-1c39pu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heavy landing. A plane approaches Heathrow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/antonioacuna/9526946820/in/photolist-fvS6nN-aNK6mD-nd2gZV-deBW6E-7WS5VJ-eyaVUj-gPiEm-n4dcVg-q9TzF-5viFRL-o1RDvv-aeUomX-2qZ1d-63xfFB-dx2KcW-4cBbxg-bwfXba-fHgWwt-5uUYV9-oKDkr-aNLqkZ-65Fd8-5hq7px-Y1RKD-6fSGWA-2LGkWB-7vH8mX-qF9TYo-rcP5Gb-6fSMGu-5hq6PT-fvCqep-e9yJ1q-aFUbBD-ehdaxX-qw2ThV-8n8nSq-nfpPD2-qh6Sem-nXqGJx-rtYTXE-qT1ZrM-pmf3xf-4UuQTZ-4KtfWD-jg7aAx-fPnLNa-bkJgqq-kWHm-8tkS59">Antonio Acuña</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lobbying groups such as <a href="http://www.takingbritainfurther.com/?utm_source=iC_PPC&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%2Bairport+%2Bcommission%7C27090964&utm_campaign=Generic&utm_content=google&OVMTC=Broad&site=&creative=55699484777&OVKEY=+airport++commission&url_id=27090964&device=c&utm_source=ic_PPC&utm_meduim=cpc&utm_term=+airport++commission&utm_campaign=3rd+Runway%3EOther+%3A+BMM&utm_content=google&kenshooid=5388">Taking Britain Further</a>, <a href="http://londonfirst.co.uk/our-focus/londons-airport-capacity/">London First</a> <a href="http://letbritainfly.com">Let Britain Fly</a> and <a href="http://www.backheathrow.org">Back Heathrow</a>, support runway expansion. They cite jobs, economic growth and our status on the global stage as the prime factors. Contrary positions are held by <a href="http://www.planestupid.com">Plane Stupid</a>, <a href="http://www.hacan.org.uk/resources/briefings/The-Case-against-a-Third-Runway.pdf">Hacan Clear Skies</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/may/24/third-runway-heathrow-scrapped-baa">NoTRAG</a> and environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and WWF. Detractors are concerned about greenhouse gas emissions, property destruction, noise and air pollution and the existence of lower impact alternatives.</p>
<p>Heathrow is the world’s <a href="http://www.acl-uk.org/acl-international/newsArticle.aspx?id=168">second busiest</a> international airport behind Dubai, with Gatwick coming in at <a href="http://www.aci.aero/Data-Centre/Monthly-Traffic-Data/International-Passenger-Rankings/12-months">12th</a>, impressive given its single runway. Other European competitors, such as Paris and Frankfurt boast four runways apiece and Amsterdam a mighty six. Heathrow, through lack of capacity, has seen its footprint shrink, losing nearly two-thirds of its <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32163676">UK domestic network</a> from 17 to six, as operators concentrate on flying larger aircraft on more profitable, denser routes.</p>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly, Gatwick, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8317662.stm">now under independent management</a>, has flourished and boasts the UK’s widest range of <a href="http://www.gatwickairport.com/business-community/about-gatwick/at-a-glance/facts-stats/">destinations</a>. Without expansion it is easy to see Heathrow becoming south east England’s airport, as the rest of the country is better served by high-frequency global connections accessed via the major European hubs. It is hard to envision even a two-runway Gatwick becoming a longhaul heavy hitter.</p>
<h2>A post-election problem</h2>
<p>What is clear is that the issue is deeply political. While Gatwick’s residential neighbours voted Tory in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2011/sep/13/boundary-changes-constituency-map">2010 election</a>, Heathrow flight paths cover constituencies held by the three larger parties (and the Queen). Only following the election in 2001 did Heathrow Terminal 5 get the go ahead. Eventually <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7294618.stm">opened in 2008</a>, the decision had been <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7269311.stm">in planning since 1985</a>. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/nov/20/publicservices.transport">Transport Secretary Stephen Byers</a> told MPs:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Terminal 5 is a lesson in how not to plan major infrastructure projects that are in the public interest.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78383/original/image-20150417-3249-1t4yxmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78383/original/image-20150417-3249-1t4yxmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78383/original/image-20150417-3249-1t4yxmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78383/original/image-20150417-3249-1t4yxmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78383/original/image-20150417-3249-1t4yxmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78383/original/image-20150417-3249-1t4yxmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78383/original/image-20150417-3249-1t4yxmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78383/original/image-20150417-3249-1t4yxmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Making a point. CBI chief Mike Rake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/the-cbi/16296170668/in/photolist-qQ38wN-qQaxyT-qQ38MN">The CBI</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19570653">Airports Commission</a> believes there is a need for an additional runway in the south east by 2030. But the real answer is that both airstrips are needed, and probably another at Stansted too. Politically, this kind of honesty is toxic for politicians of all colours, hence the delay in the commission’s toothless recommendation until immediately after the election, five long years before the next one. Any recommendation is non-binding and if perceived to be too risky can be kicked into the long grass awaiting another commission. President of the Confederation of British Industry, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/10192866/CBI-head-backs-third-runway-for-Heathrow.html">Mike Rake</a>, believes it’s a no-brainer: the Heathrow third runway should be built immediately and a second added at Gatwick. </p>
<h2>Tough call</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/airport-operator-baa-to-change-name-after-sell-off-8211350.html">split ownership</a> of the south east’s larger airports can only help drive more open and competitive evaluation of the choices. <a href="http://www.gatwickobviously.com/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwmLipBRC59O_EqJ_E0asBEiQATYdNh7TOYz_HfTc1D_U2CO4RYHrX_aEE_2F5O02-2_XCSc8aAuK78P8HAQ">Gatwick Obviously’s</a> campaign is crisp, fresh and underpins a reinvigorated vision for the nation’s often neglected second airport. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/13/gatwick-says-passenger-surge-underlines-need-for-new-runway">Gatwick claims</a> its expansion would be quicker, cheaper and face fewer environmental obstacles, helped by its more rural Sussex hinterland.</p>
<p>However, easyJet, Gatwick’s second largest airline, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/gatwicks-biggest-airline-easyjet-calls-for-new-runway-at-heathrow-10013848.html">votes for Heathrow expansion</a>. CEO Carolyn McCall states: “Heathrow is in the best interests of passengers as it has the greatest demand.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the electoral stasis created by powerful pressure groups who want to champion their agendas is not helpful here. Willie Walsh, Chief Executive of British Airway’s holding company, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/02/british-airways-heathrow-third-runway-lost-cause-willie-walsh">believes Britain’s politicans</a> lack the character required to approve Heathrow’s third runway. </p>
<p>Businesses seem to favour a third Heathrow runway as the optimal expansion option, however Gatwick benefits from fewer obstacles. I suspect the least worst choice may prevail over the optimal, after all it is always going to be a political, rather than a rational economic decision, and businesses do not get a vote. </p>
<p>We may have a five-year window to push through difficult – even unpopular – decisions, but it won’t have escaped anyone’s notice that a government of coalition and compromises is <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-britain-be-governable-after-the-election-39468">very likely to be in place</a> after May 7. And this will only make the required bold political leadership harder.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Before changing careers, Justin O'Brien worked for British Airways for 16 years and will draw part of his pension from them. </span></em></p>Once we’ve voted them in, politicians might just have the guts to make a decision on new flights capacity. But it is likely they will still dodge the decision we really need.Professor Justin O'Brien, MBA Programme Director, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/368152015-01-28T06:28:56Z2015-01-28T06:28:56ZBritish Airways isn’t chasing the rainbow with its Aer Lingus bid<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70170/original/image-20150127-17544-1uw8co1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">IAG hope to make a few pots of gold from buying Aer Lingus.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Blok</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The bid by British Airways’ owner, IAG, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30978683">to buy Aer Lingus</a> is yet another step towards the establishment of the three dominant network carriers in the EU airline market. The Aer Lingus board is currently considering a third bid by IAG for the airline of €2.55 a share. While the Irish government, which has a <a href="http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2015/0127/675839-aer-lingus-iag/">25.1% stake in the airline</a>, will have justified concerns about the takeover, it makes business sense for the two to merge.</p>
<p>The other major stakeholder is Ryanair, which owns a 29.8% share in Aer Lingus following its own failed takeover attempts. A European Commission competition ruling dictated that Ryanair must sell all but 5% of its shareholding, however, so Ryanair will simply be looking to gain as large a profit as possible from the sale. </p>
<p>Resistance from the Irish government is to be expected. The government’s main concerns will include potential job losses following the merger, and the loss of the Irish Aer Lingus brand. </p>
<p>IAG has, however, <a href="http://www.cityam.com/208036/aer-lingus-takeover-iag-will-engage-irish-government-secure-its-support">spoken directly to these concerns</a>, assuring them that Aer Lingus will operate as a separate business with its own brand, management and operations. Precedent for this can be seen in recent cross-border European airline mergers, which did not lead to the disappearance of the brand of the acquired airline. KLM, Austrian, Swiss, and Iberia (also part of IAG) brands are still alive and well. And, Aer Lingus will obtain access to more prized Heathrow airport take-off and landing slots.</p>
<h2>Widening their network</h2>
<p>In the current global airline market, it makes sense for a network airline to offer a comprehensive set of routes to many destinations. This can be achieved by either creating an extensive network, or by becoming a member of a global alliance. Aer Lingus currently does neither. At 77 destinations, its network is small compared to British Airways (which flies to more than 180 cities throughout the world). </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70178/original/image-20150127-17547-1e60jit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70178/original/image-20150127-17547-1e60jit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70178/original/image-20150127-17547-1e60jit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70178/original/image-20150127-17547-1e60jit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70178/original/image-20150127-17547-1e60jit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70178/original/image-20150127-17547-1e60jit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70178/original/image-20150127-17547-1e60jit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aer Lingus’ current destinations. This would increase significantly if bought by IAG.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aer Lingus</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aer Lingus is also not a part of either of the three global alliances – Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam – which incorporate the majority of the world’s major airlines. While the airline is able to offer its passengers some connectivity beyond its network through a set of codesharing agreements, these connections tend to be less convenient to the passengers compared to those done within the same alliance. For example, alliances tend to consolidate all their operations in the same terminal at the major hub airports. </p>
<p>From this point of view, joining forces with one of the world’s major carriers makes perfect business sense for Aer Lingus. Its customers will obtain improved access to British Airways’ extensive network, allowing for seamless travel to more destinations, more convenient connections at Heathrow – after its merger with BA, Iberia’s services were moved to British Airways’ Terminal five hub, and we can expect the same to happen with Aer Lingus. Frequent fliers will also obtain access to all the benefits of the British Airways’ loyalty program.</p>
<h2>The Atlantic problem</h2>
<p>There is one potential downside to the proposed acquisition. Aer Lingus has recently been working hard to establish itself as a small-scale but robust competitor on the transatlantic market, facilitated by the convenience provided by US Immigration pre-clearance at Dublin airport. The airline flies to several North American destinations, had plans this year to open flights to Washington DC, and increase the frequency of services on some of its transatlantic routes. </p>
<p>There is a chance British Airways may see this strategy as a potential threat, and decide to curtail Aer Lingus’ transatlantic program. Yet, if history is any guide, previous cross-border airline mergers in Europe saw the acquired airlines retain a considerable degree of control over their strategic business decisions. Aer Lingus and those of us looking to increase our transatlantic flight options hope this will be the case this time as well.</p>
<p>On the European front, competition should not be affected. Unlike with Ryanair, Aer Lingus overlaps with British Airways only on Ireland-UK routes. While we can anticipate increased concentration on Ireland-London markets should the merger happen, we can also suggest that the continued presence of low-cost carriers will ensure enough competitive pressure to prevent any kind of BA-Aer Lingus price controlling.</p>
<p>Overall, it makes perfect business sense for Aer Lingus to join forces with a major network airline of British Airways’ calibre. Without decreasing much the competition on the Ireland-UK markets, this merger will bring significant gains to both Aer Lingus and its customers. I, however, hope that Aer Lingus will retain its position on the transatlantic market, where recent consolidation has diminished competition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36815/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Volodymyr Bilotkach does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The bid by British Airways’ owner, IAG, to buy Aer Lingus is yet another step towards the establishment of the three dominant network carriers in the EU airline market. The Aer Lingus board is currently…Volodymyr Bilotkach, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.