> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://onemanandhisblog.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The Business Failure Behind BA's Crisis
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2005/08/the_business_fa/
- Published: 2005-08-15T23:01:38.000Z
- Updated: 2015-04-08T09:13:17.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth

It really hasn’t been a good week for aviation, has it? Leaving aside [yesterday’s horrifying crash](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4151398.stm?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), 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 ](http://www.bizbuzzmedia.com/blogs/flight%5Finternational/archive/2005/08/12/262.aspx?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)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.

Technorati Tags: [aviation](http://technorati.com/tag/aviation?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), \[british airways\]([http://technorati.com/tag/british](http://technorati.com/tag/british?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) airways), [business](http://technorati.com/tag/business?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), [outsourcing](http://technorati.com/tag/outsourcing?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)