BA’s pilots also created other problems. Long-haul flights often required
cabin crew to stay away from home for up to a week and so older pilots
with families preferred short-haul flights, resulting in shortages on long-
haul routes. In November 1985, the company resumed recruitment of
pilots and included women for the first time. Reflecting the desire to
changed its culture from the ‘military’ past, BA also recruited civil pilots
for the first time.
All of this reflected the seriousness with which BA was attempting to
change its culture, something that is always difficult to achieve in large
organizations. The success of Putting People First was followed in 1985 by
another major company-wide communications project called ‘A Day in the
Life’. The aim was to increase awareness of the contribution made by each
of the airline’s major departments and their interdependence. Addressing
the issue that BA was still very compartmentalized, the programme had
the goal of preventing staffing departments blaming each other and
making others scapegoats, instead of taking responsibility.
Bombing Libya
In August 1986, amidst all the internal changes in BA, there was a dramatic
external event: the bombing of Libya by American jets, taking off from the
UK. Fear of reprisals caused many Americans to cancel flights to Europe.
Marshall said at the time, ‘The effect ... was extremely serious. At one time,
cancellations were outstripping bookings by 27,000 a week, just when our
reservations should have been climbing by about 50,000 a week.’
BA’s management turned the situation to its advantage by using the inci-
dent to add to the sense of crisis that was reducing internal resistance to
cultural change. Further, it became an opportunity to present BA as a major
global brand to the world, and especially the huge US market. The promo-
tional response was the ‘Go for it, America’ promotion, a nationwide
sweepstake giving away 6000 free seats and a range of valuable prizes,
including free use of Concorde for a day with 99 friends, a week at a luxury
hotel, rental of a luxury car and a five-year lease on a Chelsea townhouse.
The campaign cost US$9.2 million, but the results redressed the booking
shortfall and by the end of the summer bookings were 5 per cent better
than in 1985. In the seven weeks before the campaign 8000 bookings were
made each week, while after this weekly bookings rose to 17 700. In the
long term, BA obtained an additional 1 per cent share of the Atlantic and 3
per cent of worldwide markets.
The crisis at BA which was inspired by the Tripoli bombing in 1986
caused a halt in recruitment in order to save £35 million. However, in
December a new programme to train 100 new pilots each year was
announced. The package offered was attractive: a Captain earned £43 000
per annum plus overseas allowances which could add another 20 per cent.
462 Relationship Marketing