What BA Should do

To maintain its position as Europe’s leading airline, BA will need a merge with a Iberia. Not a complete take-over but an airline group sharing fleet under shared codes. But that should not happen untill 2005 at the earliest. Beofre hand a low-cost airline should be set up, prefebally based in areas like Glasgow, Cardiff and East Midlands were there is high demand for low-cost travel. The fleet should be around 28 Airbus A319’s and 15 A320 aircraft. This shoukld happen by 2007. The next step is major regional growth, mainly at Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff. The aircraft used should be Boeing 717s. BA should place a major order of them (atleast 35) with options for more. This will mean more routes within the UK and Ireland, a leading share in the UK Market. Routes like Manchester-Paris, Birmingham-Geneva, Glasgow-Basel and Cardiff-Brussels should be targeted. BA should place an order of around 22 of the Embraer jets to replace the BAE 146s (which should be transfered on operates at LCY, the aircraft is built for the buisness market). BA should also order around 8 A380-800 aircraft for routes like LHR-IAD, LHR-JFK, LHR-Singapre-Sydney.BA should also take a major stake in Swiss whilst time goes on. The 767/757s should be replaced with Boeing 7E7s and additional 777-200s should also be put on the cards.
With all these steps taken, BA will surely be the worlds real favourite airline and Europes leading carrier.