British Airways CRM Case Study: Relationship Management and Strategy

This case study examines British Airways' Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies, particularly after the events of September 11, 2001, which necessitated significant cost savings and changes to their CRM environment. The study traces the history and evolution of British Airways, highlighting its current status as the largest airline in the UK and its merger with Iberia to form the International Airline Group (IAG). It assesses the airline's technical, functional, and corporate image quality dimensions, noting its premium pricing strategy aimed at upper-class customers. The analysis differentiates between low-cost and regular airline customers, emphasizing varying preferences and cost sensitivities. It further explores how British Airways acquires and manages its premium customer segments, highlighting the alignment of customer management processes with customer requirements. The study concludes that while British Airways is successful internationally, it needs to introduce low-cost services and expand its airport coverage to better satisfy a broader range of customers.

Running head: MARKET OF BRITISH AIRLINES
Market of British Airlines
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Answer 1:
British Airways was established in 1974 after the merging of the British Overseas
Airways Corporation and British European Airways following the Edward Report in 1969. The
Cambrian Airlines and Northeast Airlines were also merged in 1972. It was merging of these
four airline companies that led to the formation of British Airways (britishairways.com 2018).
Today British Airways is the largest airline in the United Kingdom as far as fleet size is
concerned and has its main hub at the Heathrow Airport, London. BA is a public limited
company and merged with Iberia which led to formation of the world’s third largest airline
group, the International Airline Group. It is a premium and executive air transport carrier which
provides both international and domestic flight service to the upper class customers (Drucker
2014).
Answer 2:
British Airways follows high standard of technical quality, functional quality and
corporate image. The company which is a part of the world third largest airline group, IAG holds
fleets of Boeing and Airbus which shows its technical power. The functional power of BA
consists of both passenger and cargo flights. The airline company owns over 200 flights and
operates from various airports in Europe, Asia and North America, all of which bear testimony
of its operational power. British Airways holds the corporate of a premium service offering
airline company (Goetsch and Davis 2014).
Answer 3:
British Airways uses premium pricing as a sale funnel to sell its flight packages to its
target customer segments, the rich upper class customers. The airline company to encourage the

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upper class customers use its premium flight services, offers discounts on booking of flights
from its website. The airline company also incorporated Iberia into this discount scheme get
access to the customer bases of the other members of Iberia, however subject to the policies of
the individual companies (Keeble and Wilkinson 2017).
Answer 4:
The main differences between the low cost airline customers and regular airline
customers lie in their preferences of flights and sensitivity to costs. The low cost customers are
generally infrequent travelers who consider prices as a more important factor of consideration
compared to other factors like service quality and comfort. The regular travelers are frequent
traveler who consider factors like comfort and convenience important while traveling. The low
cost customers are not loyal to any particular airline service provider. One can infer from the
discussion that regular travelers consider airline brand and remain loyal to particular brands since
comfort matters to them (Rees and Smith 2017).
Answer 5:
British Airways acquires its customer segments of upper class premium customers by
promoting its products on various media. It promotes its price packages in and around
international airports, in magazines and also on the internet (Goetsch and Davis 2014).
Answer 6:
The customer management process of BA is aligned to the customer requirements. This is
the best aspect of BA customer relationship management.

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Answer 7:
British Airways is successful in the international but requires to implement many changes
to its customer approach. The airline company should introduce low cost services under its brand
name and expand its service to more airports to satisfy more BA customers (Keeble and
Wilkinson 2017).

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References:
Book Flights, Holidays & Check In Online | British Airways. 2018. Britishairways.com.
Retrieved 8 April 2018, from https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/home
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Keeble, D., and Wilkinson, F. (Eds.). (2017). High-technology clusters, networking and
collective learning in Europe. Routledge.
Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2017. Strategic human resource management: An international
perspective. Sage.