The Business Failure Behind BA's Crisis

It really hasn’t been a good week for aviation, has it? Leaving aside yesterday’s horrifying crash, BA’s problems with sympathy strikes and catering suppliers monopolised headlines all weekend. Now BA claim that they’re being affected by an internal dispute within the supplier firm, Gate Gourmet.

Flight International disagrees:

Behind the Gate Gourmet dispute is the chronically deficient

business model in which airlines rely utterly on robust, 24/7, service

from caterers, ground-handlers and so on but are not willing to pay a

sensible price for them. So margins and reward-packages at those

suppliers are in perpetual conflict – in this case a dose of

heavy-handed US labour relations (Gate Gourmet is owned by Texas

Pacific Group) was all it needed to ignite the tinderbox.

Cost reduction is all well and good, but when it hits customer service, it’s time to rethink, especially in aviation.

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