Earlier this week British Airways CEO Sean Doyle sent a letter to its customers outlining his commitment to restoring the airline’s focus on delivering a premium service to passengers.

In its over 600 word letter, Doyle recognised issues with its in-flight offering and customer service, issues that’s led the UK flag-carrier to be positioned as one of the worst airlines in short and long-haul travel according to a pre-pandemic poll by Which magazine in the UK. The influential Skytrax ranking also put BA in 19th place.

Complaints about BA are nothing new, with the airline finding it difficult to meet the expectations of customers. Let’s remember that this is a company that once describe itself and was perceived as “the world’s favourite airline.”

How BA fell from grace

But since that great advertising campaign, British Airways has found itself squeezed between rivals in the short-haul routes in Europe and new entrants from the Middle East and Gulf in the long-haul market.

The likes of Easyjet and Ryanair offered quick and low-cost services to passengers, undercutting BA, which even though it invested in the creation of Go in the late 1990s, it sold to a management buy-out, which they sold again to Easyjet - great strategy by EasyJet. In the long-haul environment, the likes of Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways invested in hub strategies, while BA’s business to Asia and beyond was point-to-point. The gulf carriers invested in a premium service at lower costs than they could offer, again, challenging BA.

While BA was a victim of changes in the market its strategic decisions damaged its offering and the wider reputation of the airline. It is this negative perception that BA has found hard to shift and which Doyle is now looking to resolve as the world moves from a pandemic to an endemic with regards to COVID-19. But the transformation is not going to be easy.

The public, as Cat Rutter Pooley points out in the Financial Times, expects the quality from yesteryear. BA, in essence, has ‘a nostalgia problem’.

Redesigning the offer from BA

In his letter to passengers, Doyle has signalled that he is committed to revitalising the airline, repairing its reputation and ensuring that it offers a premium service. He owns the situation that the airline finds itself in and makes a personal commitment to ‘build a better British Airways’, something that won’t be easy.

Of course, the letter he’s shared will have been drafted by the communications team. They would have checked all content and commitments that he makes. It would have been drafted to asks people for time and, as I read it, to inform them of the changes ahead

Using the word ‘transparency’ so early on is quite risky and this would have been a decision and strategy designed to make the airline more open and approachable. But for the perception of transparency and openness to be adopted by the public and passengers it really needs to be just that.

Equally, when asking for passengers to be patient, as Doyle asks, customers need to know what is happening and when. And what premium service means.

Doyle states that he knows that issues exist with call centres and he is committed to resolving these, a win if he’s able to deliver this at pace. He also states that “complimentary water and snacks” will continue on short-haul flights - something that to me doesn’t sound premium in any way.

What I read from the open letter is that Doyle and BA have embarked on a transformation programme that aims to reposition the airline as the world starts to fly again.

Before the pandemic, I used to fly quite a lot to Asia and throughout Europe for work. I hesitated using BA when the offer, price and experience from the Gulf carriers were much better. Equally, when in Asia, low-cost airlines like Air Asia, Silk Air or Scoot - owned by Singapore Airlines, offered a much better experience onboard, online and on their Apps. Simple things that made flying a pleasure.

These Asia carriers made a commitment to innovation. Their experience on their apps was great. BA’s is still lacking and needs to focus on innovation and ensuring that the digital environment through which passengers can book and manage their booking is premium.

How BA can regain its reputation for premium service

Firstly, it needs to know what’s the perception its customers and the wider travelling public have of the airline and the service it currently delivers while knowing what it wants it to deliver. Bridging the gap between these two, and exceeding expectations is the work that will help it rebuild its reputation.

To achieve this it needs to measure itself against its competitors and see how it can reshape its offering.

Communications professionals within BA will need to embed themselves within the transformation team/s in order to see the iteration of the service across its various cabin classes. They will need to speak upwards to ensure that changes made meet and exceed expectations.

Stakeholder mapping will be essential and from a communications perspective, knowing your influencer market will be a critical area of work during the iteration of the offer and the revealing of it.

Personally, I would use Agile and design-thinking to ensure that British Airways is able to find where it fits in the market. Yes, low-cost carriers will undercut it on price, but where can BA win on service and experience?

At the same time as the transformation is taking place and improvements are made across the various touchpoints where passengers and customers form an opinion, a strong narrative will need to be created with messaging that confirms the premium of the service that BA are focused on delivering.

Comms needs to embed itself across the transformation programme to enable it and its internal teams to design and deliver a better service and experience.

I used to be a frequent traveller and I hope that I can return to BA once again!