Tag: Business

Vueling’s Alex Cruz replaces Keith Williams as Chief Executive of British Airways

British Airways gains a new Chief Executive Officer this week as its current CEO Keith Williams, who has occupied the role since January 2011, has retired.

Keith will be replaced by Alex Cruz. Alex was previously CEO of Vueling, the Low Cost Carrier with its principal hub in Barcelona and smaller hubs around mainline Europe.

Alex’s appointment is an internal move as both British Airways and Vueling are (along with Aer Lingus and Iberia) part of International Airlines Group (“IAG”). The two airlines do co-operate with codeshares on each other’s short-haul flights.

What are we to make of this move and what does it mean for the future of BA?

Continue reading “Vueling’s Alex Cruz replaces Keith Williams as Chief Executive of British Airways”

Geoff Golberg vs Virgin Atlantic – Another use of promoted tweets to protest against an airline

A little over twelve months ago, we wrote of how Hasan Syed used promoted tweets to vent his frustration against British Airways after his father was separated from his luggage on a journey to Paris.

At the time, we speculated that whilst this was a novel use of the promoted tweet facility, it might not be the game changer the extensive media coverage it generated suggested.

In, perhaps, proof of the point, it has taken over a year for another promoted tweet against an airline to catch our attention.

This time it is Virgin Atlantic that is the target of a passenger’s ire.

Step forward Geoff Golberg:

Continue reading “Geoff Golberg vs Virgin Atlantic – Another use of promoted tweets to protest against an airline”

The story of an airline turnaround: International Airlines Group & Iberia

This post is perhaps for students of aviation rather than the travelling public at large, but it is something worth noting in any event.

We have written much in recent years about British Airways’ International Airlines Group (“IAG”) sibling Iberia, and the wildly divergent financial performance of the two airlines since the formation of IAG four years ago in 2011.

Since Iberia started to report very heavy losses in 2012, IAG has taken a number of steps to improve the performance of Iberia.

This has included a complete overhaul of its senior management by a new CEO and (after bitter and unedifying industrial action with some rather unpleasant anti-British sentiment) reaching new collective agreements with its pilots and other staff working groups.

Continue reading “The story of an airline turnaround: International Airlines Group & Iberia”