June 19, 2005 at 4:46 am
I’m a British Airways shareholder for all my sins…but for the love of god…can somebody please tell me how the BA Franchise system works in plain english……
and what would happen if all the franchise partners did widthdraw from the BA branding.
By: OneLeft - 19th June 2005 at 08:26
Quite simple really Dan. It’s just like any other franchise (eg McDonalds). An independant airline pays to use the BA brand.
The benefit to BA is financial and an extension to the network. The benefit to the independant is the use of the BA name and support from a large airline for things such as reservations systems, aircraft purchasing/leasing, etc.
If a franchise ends (which happens fairly regularily) the two airlines simply part company. Any routes the franchisee operates on behalf of BA would go back to BA, the rest stay with the independant and BA stops selling them as their own.
1L.