Sriram
Narayan, Commercial Development Manager & Deputy Sales Manager,
South
Asia, British
Airways
is Chartered Accountant by qualification and is responsible for all sales activities
in South Asia. Prior to this, Sriram was the Manager Trade Sales for India.
Before returning to Mumbai, Sriram was Manager South India, based in Chennai.
He has been with British Airways for 16 years and has held key positions in
a wide variety of functions from airport operations to front line sales and
customer services.
British
Airways has a worldwide route network that covers more than 150 destinations
in 75 countries. In August 2009, British Airways celebrated its 90th anniversary.
The airline has carried more than 1.2 bn customers on its extensive network,
and is recognised as one of the world’s elite carriers. It is one of the
world's largest international airlines carrying approximately 36 million passengers
around the world every year. British Airways has been flying to India for 80
years and currently operates 45 flights a week from London Heathrow to five
cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. It operates flights
to India from London Heathrow’s state-of-the-art Terminal 5 which opened
on March 27, 2008 and is exclusive to the airline's customers and is capable
of handling 30 million customers a year.
Speaking
with Yash Ved of India Infoline, Sriram Narayan
says, “We have successfully reduced capacity globally in line with demand
and seen our seat factor improve.”
How
has British Airways coped with the downturn in the global economic slump?
The global economic downturn saw business travel budgets slashed by more than
56% over the last 12 months. While we recognise that it was a difficult and
most challenging year for most companies, the aviation industry in particular
went through a very tough phase.
In order
to deal with the situation, we put in place some prudent measures. We successfully
reduced capacity globally in line with demand which saw our seat factor improve
by 1.1% to 80.6% in the first half. We successfully completed discussions with
Airbus on rescheduled A380 deliveries. The first A380 will arrive in 2013 with
the last aircraft arriving in 2016. These among other steps to increase efficiency
and reduce operating costs, coupled with an improving economic climate is helping
us come back much stronger.
Brief us about your revenue in passenger and cargo business?
Passenger revenue was down 13.6%, on capacity down 3%. Yields were
down 12.2%, 18.2% excluding exchange, largely as a result of lower year on year
surcharges and sales mix within cabin class.
Our cargo
business continues to be impacted by the worldwide decline in demand for airfreight
although its performance compares favourably with market trends which saw volume
declines of some 13% during the period.
Cargo revenue
declined by 30.9%, with cargo volumes, measured in cargo tonne kilometres, decreasing
by 8.1 per cent, reflecting some stabilisation in declining volumes. Cargo yields
declined by 24.8 % driven by significantly lower levels of fuel surcharges,
in line with lower fuel prices and significant market price declines.
Which
are the destinations you cover in India? Any plans to add new ones?
We operate 45 flights per week from London Heathrow to five cities in India.
British Airways has a convenient schedule of double daily services to London
from Mumbai and Delhi, a daily service from Bangalore and a five – weekly
service from Chennai and Hyderabad
We launched
our first ever long-haul flights from London City airport onboard an all-business
class, 32-seater Airbus A318. Customers on the new service are the first to
be able to send emails, texts and use the internet on transatlantic flights
via an in-flight mobile communications service.
All of our Boeing 747s and 43 of our 46 Boeing 777s are fitted with our multi-award
winning Club World cabin. The embodiment schedule for the remaining three aircraft
is on track for completion by April 2010.
We launched new flights from Heathrow to Las Vegas and Gatwick to Montego Bay,
Punta Cana, Male and Sharm El Sheikh and moved Gibraltar and Pisa services from
Gatwick to Heathrow. Flights from Gatwick to Innsbruck start in December 2009.
Our flights to Sydney, Singapore and Bangkok moved from Heathrow Terminal 4
into new facilities at Terminal 3 where we opened our new First lounge. At the
same time, Qantas also moved its flights into Terminal 3. This means that all
our oneworld alliance partners are based in the same terminal, helping to ensure
smoother connections for customers travelling on the oneworld network through
Heathrow.
Brief
us about the launch of Business Opportunity Grants?
We have launched British Airways Business Opportunity Grants across India as
part of the airline’s commitment to help India’s more than 13 million
SMEs (Small to Medium Sized Enterprises) and to help stimulate local business.
Final registrations for the grant will be open until Friday, January 15, 2010.
British
Airways Business Opportunity Grants is designed to help drive business growth
for small to medium sized companies by focusing on tangible, human connections
as a crucial driver of business for Indian SMEs in this critical time.
Fifty small
to medium sized companies will be awarded grants giving them free travel for
one year to help support their business and seek out new opportunities. British
Airways Business Opportunity Grants winners will be awarded 10 return British
Airways Club World (business class) tickets to be used throughout 2010. The
total value of the tickets is worth more than Rs 112,035,000/-.
Brief
us about your financials?
British Airways has reported results for the six months ended September 30,
2009. For the six months ended September 30, 2009, Operating loss of £111mn
against profit of £140mn in 2008. Total revenue in the period was down
13.7%.
Operating
costs were down 8.7%, despite the weakening of sterling compared to the same
period last year. Fuel costs for the period were down 17.8% on last year. Other
operating costs decreased by 4.3% due to the continued delivery of the cost
reduction initiatives launched last October.
What is your cash reserve and debt?
Our liquidity position at the end of September was £2bn, including £1,507mn
of cash and some £460mn of general facilities. In addition, we have £2bn
of committed aircraft facilities.
The increase
in reserves is primarily driven by the retranslation of foreign debt and the
market to market movement on fuel and currency hedges of £454mn. The equity
component of the convertible bond raised in August 2009 adds a further £84mn
to reserves. Net debt at the end of September was £2,362mn, a decrease
of £20mn from the end of March 2009.
Tell
us about your employee strength in India?
We have over 500 employees all over India.