of the civil aviation industry. ‘We have a fairly formal relationship with the
CAA,’ says Christopher Allen, BA’s Head of Competition and Industry
Affairs. ‘We have no reason to believe that the CAA acts in a biased way
with respect to other airlines.’^8 However, the CAA’s stated policy is for the
UK to have a strong multi-airline system, which necessarily means it sup-
ports small carriers in their attempts to compete with BA, which holds the
dominant market share.
British Caledonian, BA’s main UK competitor, had argued to the CAA
that a privatized BA would be too powerful a force. In response to CAP
5000, BA mounted a major defence campaign, lobbying government and
MPs. Staff sent a petition with over 26 000 names to the Government, MPs
and ministers, while bus-loads of employees lobbied Parliament.
Regardless of whether this affected the Government, it did galvanize the
work force against an external threat. Probably a greater influence was that
CAP 5000 conflicted with the Government’s desire to privatize BA and the
eventual legislation rejected the CAA’s recommendation of cutting BA’s
routes and landing rights.
Freddie Laker and unfair competition
Further competitive trouble was around the corner when in 1985 Freddie
Laker, CEO of Laker Airways, alleged that BA conspired with other airlines
to create unfair competition to Skytrain, his innovative, low cost transat-
lantic service. BA settled out of court for an unknown sum.
There was also controversy over British Midland’s sister airline,
LoganAir. The Chairman, Sir Michael Bishop, claimed that BA Marketing
Director, Liam Strong, had approached him about a joint venture to serve
the Scottish highlands and islands. Talks went ahead but at the last
moment BA pulled out of the deal. Six months later BA established new
flights from Manchester and Edinburgh, which were in competition with
LoganAir’s most profitable routes.
Recruitment problems
The early 1980s had seen major staff reductions but by the end of the 1980s
BA was experiencing staff shortages in important skill areas and was
having difficulty in attracting the right candidates. BA responded by
applying customer service principles to recruitment. They established a
Recruitment Marketing Team at Heathrow. Training programmes for man-
agers were developed so that managers would understand recruitment
markets, be aware of the importance of equal opportunities and be
equipped with selection and assessment skills.
By this time, BA had 2000 pilots who had an average age of 46, while
none were under 34. Over 1200 of these would reach the retirement age of
55 by the year 2000 and all would be retired by 2007. BA was clearly going
to suffer a shortage without an influx of young pilots. The age profile of
Creating and implementing relationship marketing strategies 461