BL Research Bureau

British Airways completed 30 years of operations on the Chennai-London route this year. The airline launched its first flight from London to Chennai on November 3, 1988 and at that time was flying the route twice a week. Now, it operates five flights a week on the route. In an interaction with BusinessLine , Robert Williams, Head of Asia Pacific and Middle East Sales at British Airways, talks about the airline’s plans for India.

What is the roadmap for British Airways in India?

We are 90 years in India, 30 years in Chennai, and in 2019, we will celebrate our centenary of flying.

We fly 49 times a week to five places in India now. We are always growing the global network. Increasing the network doesn’t necessarily mean more flights. We recently signed a codeshare agreement here with Vistara, and that’s a big step ahead now in our roadmap. Not only are we offering people seamless journeys on the routes that we fly, but also seamless connections to the other cities in India and to the many places that they fly.

We have been investing a lot recently, £4.5 billion in new products and services; that includes new aircraft. We have been bringing in our A380s and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

We are also investing in some of our softer sides, such as our catering proposition. We have signed a partnership with The White Company, a UK luxury bedding company, to make sure that our business-class passengers have the most comfortable journey they could get.

We have made sure that the food we offer has had a real re-imagination in all cabins. We always like to have a fine balance between the local flavour and being a global carrier as we are.

We have some customers here who appreciate that we offer local cuisine and local language entertainment. We have staff who can take care of our customers and speak the local languages.

At the same time, we make sure we are appealing to a global audience who want the latest global flavours, entertainment and the latest technological advances. We are rolling out Wi-Fi across the fleet; that should be complete next year.

Are global airlines such as yours also facing the cost pressures seen by carriers in India?

If I talk specifically about British Airways, our published financial results over the last few years show that we have been improving our performance year-on-year. We operate in a very competitive environment; it’s a good thing for our customers and for us because we keep innovating and investing.

We have also had to make some decisions in terms of the costs in the business and we have done that sensibly over the last few years. We are running a business and we have to make sure that our costs are kept under control. We have to make sure that we are investing where our customers want us to invest the most, and that they keep coming back to us.

We need to keep thinking sensibly about where we fly and where the best opportunities are there for us. We are doing this in a market that’s very competitive but one in which we are performing and in which we continue to grow our results.

The share of British Airways in traffic to and from India is in low-single digits. How do you plan to increase your share with rising competition?

If you are looking at global market share figures for a market like India, our focus is the market to UK, Europe and North America — the places in our network that we fly to and from our network into India. We don’t fly in the other directions from India.

We fly nearly 50 times a week into India, which is a lot. We are flying every day to everywhere that we fly in India. We focus on what we are doing and not what others are doing.

Did the recent weakness in the rupee have any impact on your India business?

Customers travelling on our aircraft at different times are a blend of those travelling from this end; customers travelling from the UK; and customers travelling from other markets such as the US. It’s always a shifting balance there. Overall, a seat on an aircraft is not necessarily sold to a customer here; it could be sold to a customer in any of those places and the balance of that continually changes. Currency change is a global dynamic thing, and we are very comfortable with our business in India.

Which aircraft were being used then and what’s being used now?

Technology has moved the industry forward. In this time period, we have seen some real game changers in terms of aircraft type. For instance, the A380 bringing that real big capacity on one aircraft. Also planes like the Dreamliner which are fuel-efficient, quieter and have a much more positive kind of cabin air environment. At the same time, we have the 747 which is a much-loved and core part of the BA fleet.

I think 30 years ago, we would have been retiring aircraft like the Tristar. We would have moved into the 747–400 generation; I think that came in the late 80s, early 90s. And the 777 was about to become a part of the fleet; it is a big part of our long haul fleet now. Also, back in the late 80s, things like the Airbus 320 was starting with us. The 767 was quite a big part of the fleet; that’s now retiring.

How have fares moved over the years, adjusted for inflation?

I think that adjusted for inflation, the value to the customer now would be greater than it would have been back then. Public statistics say that many years ago, people would spend on an air ticket the equivalent of months and months of salary. Whereas now, flying is a more affordable opportunity for many people. Flying has been opened up. And if you are in the airline business, we have to recognise that different people are flying with us for different reasons. And we need to make sure that we are offering value.

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