About British Airways
The main purpose of this report is to analysis the website of a service-based entity. the chosen entity for the said purpose is British Airways. This paper also evaluates the presence of British airways on social media for attracting and communicating the potential customers. There are various websites and applications available for communicating and interacting with people. Due to the impact of covid-19 on the airline industry, it had become important for the British airways to reach its target audience through several media platforms. The restriction on the movement of people due to the risk of spread of coronavirus, several online websites and tools were used for interacting with people (Arghittu, et al., 2021).
British Airways was founded in 1919 as the aircraft transport and travel limited. The headquarter of the airline is situated in London, England, UK. It is the second largest flag carrier in the United Kingdom in terms of fleet size and the number of passengers carried. It was the first passenger airline to generate a revenue of more than US $1 billion on a single air route. It was the founding member of several airlines such as American Airlines, Oneworld airline alliance, Qantas, Cathay Pacific and the Canadian Airlines. The alliances have grown to become the third largest alliance after SkyTeam and Star Alliance.
The target audience of British airways website include individuals belonging to the age group of 20-50 years. Majority of the customers of British Airways belong to the upper – middle income group people (Karaagaoglu & Cicek, 2019). The British Airways airline has an excellent term of comfort, customer service and loyalty programs. The fleet size of British Airways is 254 with over 200 destinations. The British Airways uses several social media Platforms for reaching its customers for the purpose of improving customer service and attracting large number of customers.
Statistics
Figure 1: Number of Passengers uplifted by airlines in UK
The number of People uplifted by the airline industry in the UK has dramatically reduced during the year 2020. The airline industry has experienced a major downfall due to the restrictions in the movement of people nationally as well as globally. The coronavirus pandemic has forced several institutions and corporations to shut down their business as they are not able survive due to loss of customers. The airlines industry is one of those industry which is largely affected by the global pandemic. The number of customers uplifted by the United Kingdom in the year 2019 was 153.7 million passengers, however, it has reduced to 32.35million passengers in the year 2020 (Statista, 2022). The British Airways has used several social media platforms for reaching its customers and informing them about the availability of seats and other information related to travelling in British Airways.
Existing system
Figure 2: Showing form to fill for receiving travel information and health restrictions
Source: British Airways Website
The Figure 2 shows the form for obtaining the information regarding the travelling availability from one place to another and the health restrictions in relation with the covid-19 protocol. The information provided on this page are for information purpose only and it may change on a very short notice period. It is expected that the customers should check the travel norms and health and entry requirements applicable for travelling to a particular region or place. The failure in adherence with such requirements, the British Airways will not carry such passengers.
Target Audience
Figure 3: British Airways – Home page
Figure 3 shows the home page of the British Airways website. Any potential customers can visit the website and type 3 letters of destination can obtain sufficient information in relation with the air travel. The function of this page is to provide adequate information to the customers regarding fairs for different classes and the destinations of the flights. This page is used to book flights for moving from one place to another. The bookings also contain facilities of flight plus hotel and flight plus car. These facilities are often used by the high-income group of customers while traveling to a new location.
Design
Figure 4: Official Twitter account of British Airways
Figure 4 shows the official twitter account of British Airways. It has more than 1.3 million followers. It has also provided a link for its customers to connect with them and resolves the queries. The company also uses the Twitter website for informing and attracting new customers to avail the services offered by the company.
Figure 5: Twitter Homepage
Figure 5 shows the homepage for logging or signing in to twitter account. It is one of the most widely used social media platform for reaching different types of people around the world. The primary purpose of this website is to let people come in contact with one another and share their thoughts on a bigger platform (Lutzky, 2021).
Figure 6: Facebook Account of British Airways
Figure 6 shows the Facebook account of British Airways. The company has used social media platforms extensively for marketing purposes. Facebook account allows the people to connect with one another through messages, video calls and through posts. British Airways uses this platform to post pictures and videos of different destinations and inform customers about customer services provided by the company.
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Value Proposition |
The customers in the airline industry look for high quality customer service with the safety of their belongings. The value proposition of British Airways is its customer promise. The company aims to deliver the overall better experience to its customers. The British Airways delivers its brand proposition through BA Basics and Brilliance. The unique selling proposition of this airline is that it is one of the major premium airline based in the United Kingdom. |
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Revenue Model |
The British Airways revenue segment comprises of passenger revenue, cargo revenue and other revenue. The total revenue of British Airways was £4,001 million in 2020, which is 69.9% lower than that of 2019. In order to generate revenue, the British Airways rely heavily on the local Market. However, the existence of the business is worldwide. |
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Market Opportunity |
With the reduction in the covid-19 restrictions and the movement of people from one place to another. The British Airways can use virtual websites and social media platforms to attract large number of customers and improve its business performance in the next few years. |
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Competitive Environment |
The British Airways operates in a highly competitive market. The margins of British Airways have been materially affected by the competitor capacity growth in excess of demand growth. In addition, the business failures of joint partners may impact the financial performance of the company. The Group’s activity in the airline industry and the regulations in airline industry include airport landing rights and the route flying rights. In order to remain competitive, the British Airways has ensured compliance with government regulation and high-quality service. The merger and acquisition among the competitors has always remain a concern for the business. |
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Competitive Advantage |
The British Airways enjoys competitive advantage because of its brand position, quality of customer service and the services offered by the company with the help of alliances and partnerships (Endrizalova, et al., 2018). This gives the company a sustainable competitive advantage. |
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Market Strategy |
The market strategy that is used by the British Airways can be specified as service differentiation and a premium segment airline. The marketing strategy for British Airways include e-mail marketing, web marketing and use of social media platforms. |
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Organizational Development |
The British Airways is governed by a total of 6 members in the leadership team. The organizational structure of the British airways is divided into two groups, the Management and the Customer and the operations executive. |
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Management Team |
The management group of British Airways is responsible for developing the strategic direction of the organization. The posts include the post of Chief Information Officer, Commercial Director, Director People and Organizational Effectiveness, Director of Engineering, Director of Investments and Alliances, and General Counsel. |
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Strengths: · Strong support from UK government. · It has a fleet size of over 260 aircrafts. · It has over 200 international destinations. · Excellent advertising and marketing of the airline. · Excellence brand positioning. · Wide reach through official website and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. |
Weaknesses: · Severe competition from other airlines. · Limited Market Share due to coronavirus outbreak. · The features of British Airways website are dependent on the investment made by the company. · The website does not give information regarding entertainment factors while travelling. |
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Opportunities: · Global expansion in new territories and regions · Alliances with global airlines. · Increase in demands as the movement of people. |
Threats · Threat from hackers and the leakage of customer data from the website is one of the major concerns (Guida, 2021). · Increased fuel cost and competition in the European market |
Conclusion
From the above discussion and analysis, it has been found that the British Airways uses official website along with other social media websites for informing and attracting its customers. The official website of British Airways allows the visitors to log in through personal id and password and book their tickets for travelling purposes. It is a centralized platform that provides navigations including flight information, flight booking, promotions, club rewards, and flying experience in relation with the meals, travel classes, baggage and so on. The British Airways website also gives the opportunity to its users to book hotels before arriving at the destinations.
References
Arghittu, A., Dettori, M., Dempsey, E., Deiana, G., Angelini, C., Bechini, A., … & Castiglia, P. (2021). Health Communication in COVID-19 Era: Experiences from the Italian VaccinarSì Network Websites. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(11), 5642. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115642
British Airways., 2022. Retrieved 18 March 2022, from https://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_in/
Endrizalová, P. D. E., Novák, P. D. M., N?mec, V., Tilšar, M., & Szabo, S. (2018). Brand Design as the Part of the Airlines Marketing Strategy. Marketing, 1009, 6Ps. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eva-Endrizalova/publication/329557527_brand_design_as_the_part_of_the_airlines_marketing_strategy/links/5c0f78baa6fdcc494feb40b9/brand-design-as-the-part-of-the-airlines-marketing-strategy.pdf
Facebook., (2022). Retrieved 18 March 2022, from https://www.facebook.com/
Guida, S. (2021). British Airways will face record-breaking GDPR fine for suffering financial data theft of hundreds of thousands of customers. European Journal of Privacy Law & Technologies. https://universitypress.unisob.na.it/ojs/index.php/ejplt/article/viewFile/1354/596
Karaa?ao?lu, N., & Çiçek, M. (2019). An evaluation of digital marketing applications in airline sector. Journal of Human Sciences, 16(2), 606-619. https://www.j-humansciences.com/ojs/index.php/IJHS/article/download/5661/2728
Lutzky, U. (2021). “You keep saying you are sorry”. Exploring the use of sorry in customer communication on Twitter. Discourse, Context & Media, 39, 100463. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211695820300969
Statista., (2022). UK airlines: total passenger numbers 2013-2020. Retrieved 18 March 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1024459/number-of-passengers-on-united-kingdom-airlines/
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