Reputations are more difficult to win back than to lose

British Airways' newest Airbus A380 (Reg: LEL) Taken: 24th June 2016 Picture by: Stuart Bailey / British Airways
British Airways’ newest Airbus A380 (Reg: LEL)
Taken: 24th June 2016
Picture by: Stuart Bailey / British Airways

Back in the 1990s, British Airways, the nation’s flag-carrier, proclaimed itself to be “the world’s favourite airline” in a long-running and hugely successful advertising campaign. Watching its iconic TV commercials from sofas across the country, many Brits-a pint-sized, starry-eyed Gulliver among them-swelled with pride at what was, at the time, a genuinely treasured national asset. Economist.com: “BA should be careful; reputations are more difficult to win back than to lose”.

“Were British Airways to run the same campaign today, it would probably stir a mixture of derision abroad and embarrassment at home”.  (Economist.com: Little by little, British Airways is chipping away at its good name /19.08.2016). 

In recent decades the Persian Gulf carriers have dethroned BA as the standard-bearers for long-haul service, while a new breed of low-cost carriers has attacked its short-haul dominance.

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India’s air traffic controller: a third of positions left vacant

India has just pumped US$ 50 millions into a new air traffic control tower in New Delhi. Now comes the hard part: finding qualified flight controllers to operate it.
 
Indira Gandhi International Airport
Indira Gandhi International Airport New Delhi/Image: Delhi online cityguide
Designed by HOK, the same firm that drafted Apple’s research head- quarters in California, the tower will be operational in about six months. Yet, it may struggle to handle more flights without enough controllers, according to aviation officials.
The nation’s busiest airport needs 600 of the technicians ideally for stable operations, but employs only 360, the officials say.
The world’s fastest-growing major aviation market is grappling with Continue reading “India’s air traffic controller: a third of positions left vacant”