Brand Catalyst’s Blog

Jim McAuslan’s letter in Monday’s FT underlines the extraordinary challenges facing the BA management team in dragging its employees’ mindsets out of the restrictive practices of the 1970s. What other leading brand would tolerate a member of its production team to write such a public and vituperative challenge to its own Chief Executive. Mr McAuslan’s gripes about BA setting up a new airline without current BA pilots is a bit like complaining about a UK manufacturer sourcing parts from outside the UK.

What ever the foul-ups of Terminal 5 a brand like British Airways needs singular leadership and the interests of its customers at its heart. BA customers are not concerned with what the pilots think, they want a great service. Mr McAuslan and his fellow pilots might have complete control at 30,000 feet but they should keep their prenouncements to the plane’s intercom and leave the running of the airline to those with that job.