The Failure of IT System at British Airways City Flyer

The British Airways city flyer faces various scheduling and operational challenges at London City Airport due to limited resources, increased passenger numbers, weather conditions, and air traffic control system issues. To overcome these challenges, the airline should focus on operation management, reduce delays by providing efficient services, install light seats in aircraft to reduce weight, improve airport infrastructure, and address staff behavior concerns.

Running head- British Airways City Flyer
British Airways City Flyer

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British Airways City Flyer
Introduction
British Airways City Flyer is a subsidiary of British Airways. British Airways wholly owned the
British Airways City Flyer (Brunon-Ernst, 2016). The Head office of British Airways City Flyer
is in Manchester, England. The main base of British Airways City Flyer is London City Airport.
The airline operates a network of European as well as domestic services from London City
Airport which is its main base (Mills, 2017). It has also started operation from London Stansted
Airport. British Airways City Flyer was founded on 25th March 2007. The airline also started its
services from Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchester in 2017. The size of the fleet of British
Airways city flyer is 22 aircraft. The average age of the fleet is 8.4 years. The British Airways
City Flyer is going to initiate some interesting features to enhance the experience of customers.
The new Features are the following; new partner lounge opening, high-speed Wi-Fi to stay
connected in the air, World Traveller Enhancement to provide exciting and expanded the new
menu to the customers, new routes and increased services (Mills, 2017). The airline is going to
start a direct flight between Figari and Almeria, London Heathrow and Kefalonia.
One of the international airports of London is London City Airport. The London city airport is
located in the Royal Docks in the London Borough of Newham. It is approximately six nautical
miles east of the London (Dobruszkes et al., 2017). The engineering company Mowlem
developed the airport in 1986-87. Later on, in 2016, Wren House Infrastructure Management of
the Kuwait Investment Authority, OMERS, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension, and a Canadian led
consortium of Alberta Investment Management bought the London city airport. The airport has
only one runway of 1500 meter long. In 2017, the airport served more than 4.5 billion passengers
(Dobruszkes et al., 2017). London city airport is the fifth busiest airport in terms of aircraft
movement and passengers in London.
Scheduling and Operational Challenges faced by British Airways City Flyer at London
City Airport
As we have discussed that London city airport is the fifth busiest airport of London in terms of
aircraft movement and passengers, as well as the London city airport, has only one runway of
only 1500 meter (Dobruszkes et al., 2017). It is very challenging for the airlines to schedule their
flights and operate effectively at the London city airport due to the limited resources. Scheduling

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British Airways City Flyer
the flights is one of the biggest challenges of the airport. The runway of the airport is smallest in
the country. Due to the small runway of the airport, many larger aircraft cannot use it. The larger
aircraft need a large runway takeoff (Burrows, 2015). The problem of having smaller runway
becomes a major problem in summer times. Usually, in summer time or hot weather, the flights
take often longer to take off. Therefore, the smaller runway of London city airport is creating
issues for scheduling and operating the flights of British Airways city flyer. Due to the short
airstrip at the London city airport, the aircraft have to reduce the weight of the flights by
reducing the number of passengers and luggage to takeoff safely (Oliver, 2018). Due to the same
reason, British Airways city flyer has reduced the number of passengers and luggage so that
flights can safely take off. It has made several customers disappointed, and many complaints
have been lodged.
Having a single runway disturbs the scheduling of the aircraft. The British Airways city flyer has
to schedule its flights according to the available time at the London city airport. Several flights
have to take off on a daily basis from the London city airport, and among all of them, the British
Airways city flyer also has to schedule its flights (Bazargan, 2016). Therefore, the airways can
schedule its flight according to the available time at the London city airport. Managing time is
also challenging for the British Airways city flyer at the London city airport. Sometimes the
airlines cannot schedule its flights on a daily basis because of a shortage of time and a single
runway.
The British Airways city flyer faced a major problem once when IT system of the airport was
damaged. The airline had to reschedule all the flights for the entire destination. Due to the failure
of IT system the British airways city flyer canceled all the flights for the whole day and even the
next day the schedule of flights was disturbed (Wensyeen, 2016). So, the failure of IT system
also creates scheduling and operational challenges for the flights.
British Airways city flyer is very keen towards customer service. The airline wants to make its
customer delighted by offering quality on board as well as off-board services. The customer
service is a priority of the airline. But at the London city airport, the priority of British airways
city flyer is at stake due to the limited resources available to the airline. The airline never wants
to bump off any of the passengers, but in hot weather sometimes it has to reduce the number of
passengers which is against the policy of the airline (Wensyeen, 2016). Apart from these all,

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British Airways City Flyer
there are several other issues which create scheduling and operational challenges for the British
Airways city flyer at London city airport. The number of a passenger at London city airport has
been increased significantly, but the limited number of gates at the airport is creating a problem.
The limited number entrance and exit gate are one of the major problems of the London city
airport (Bazargan, 2016). Due to the limited number of gates, the waiting time of the passenger
increases significantly which makes customers disappointed.
There is another problem with the airport which affects the operating of the aircraft, and that is
snow. The London city airport is reported to be worst affected by snow which affected the
smooth operation of the British Airways city flyer as well as other airlines. The British Airways
city flyer diverted its flights to Gatwick due to heavy snowfall at London city airport. It also
causes a delay in the flights (Calder, 2018). The customers' experience is also not satisfied with
the facility provided by the London city airport. Many of the customers have lodged complaints
against the services of the airport. One of them is related to the behavior of the airport staff. The
customers say that the staffs of the airport treat them as half criminals. As a result, the customers
have a bad experience with the London city airport which also affects their views on the services
provided by the aircraft taking off from the London city airport (Calder, 2018). Apart from these
the air traffic control system of the London airport is also a serious concern. The weather
condition in winter becomes very harsh which affect the air traffic control system of the airport.
Unexpected snowfall decreases the effectiveness of the air traffic control system which created
the problem of delaying the scheduled time of flights and sometimes directing to another airport
due to safety reasons. The British Airways city flyer faces various scheduling and operations
challenges at the London city airport.
Recommendations
As it has been discussed that the British Airways city flyer is experiencing several scheduling
and operating challenges at London city airport, it needs to be dealt to provide quality services to
the customers to make them delighted. The success of any business depends on the experience of
customers. If the customer's experience is positive the business would be successful otherwise
the business would taste the failure. Therefore, the business tends to make customers delighted
by providing quality services. The British Airways city flyer should focus on operation
management (Heizer, 2016). The theory of operation management is concerned with controlling

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British Airways City Flyer
the process or the operation of the business in the best possible efficient manner. Operation
management ensures that the business is operating efficiently both in terms of meeting the
requirements of the customers to the highest standard and using least amount of resources in
providing quality services to the customers to meet the needs and requirement of the customers.
The operation management also involves managing the process, people, and resources in order to
make the operation of the business efficient and effective (Heizer, 2016). It also focuses on the
skills, creativity, technological knowledge, and rational analysis to make the operation efficient.
When British Airways city flyer would apply the theory of operation management especially at
London city airport some of the challenges related to operation would be sorted out. For
example, after applying the theory of operation management, the British Airways city flyer can
reduce delays in flight by providing efficient services at the airport (Heizer, 2016).
The major issue at the London city airport with the airlines including British Airways city flyer is
with the smaller runway. As discussed above that due to the smaller runway sometimes the
number of passengers and luggage has to reduce to reduce the weight of aircraft so that the
flights can take off easily and safely (Bertola et al., 2017). So to reduce the weight of aircraft the
British airways city flyer should not reduce the number of passengers and luggage because it
makes the customers disappointed and dissatisfied with the services of the airline. Instead of
reducing the number of passengers and luggage to reduce the weight the British airline should
install light seats in the aircraft. Installing the lightweight seat ultimately reduces the weight of
aircraft, and hence there would not be necessary to reduce the number of passengers and luggage
to reduce the weight of aircraft. Apart from this, the airline should search for other options to
reduce the weight of aircraft so that it cannot reduce the number of passengers and luggage as it
disappoints the customers and if it will continue the customer would shift to another airline
(Bertola et al., 2017).
The British Airways city flyer should also consider the services provided by the staffs of the
airport. The behavior of the staffs of the airport is not good, and many of the customers have
lodged complaints regarding the behavior of the staffs. The behavior of the staffs of the airport
also affects the experience of the customers regarding the airline. Therefore, the airline should
consult with the authority of the airport regarding the behavior of the staffs of the airport. The
airline should also consult with the authority of the London city airport regarding the

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infrastructure of the airport. As there is only one runway which is creating a problem for
scheduling the flights, the airline authority should ask the airport authority to build more
runways so that flights can easily be scheduled. One of the major reasons for the delay in the
flights at London city airport is a single runway. As more runway would be built at the London
city airport the issue of delaying in the flights would mitigate significantly. The length of the
runway is also a major issue at the London city airport. The length of the runway is the smallest
in the country, and hence it is creating problems for flights while taking off. There should also be
more gates of entrance and exit to make it convenient for the customer to enter the airport or exit
from the airport. The number of passengers is increasing day by day and hence increasing the
demand for more gates for entry and exit. Therefore, the infrastructure of the airport should be
developed to mitigate the scheduling and operating challenges.

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References
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airports? Recent changes in European and US low-cost airline airport choice. Journal of Air
Transport Management, 59, pp.50-62.
Burrows, P., 2015. Measuring the customer’s journey through London City Airport. Journal of
Airport Management, 9(2), pp.103-108.
Oliver Smith (2018). Passengers kicked off 'heavy' London City Airport flights. [online] The
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London-City-Airport-flights/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2018].
Bazargan, M., 2016. Airline operations and scheduling. Routledge.
Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Wensveen, J.G., 2016. Air transportation: A management perspective. Routledge.
Calder, S. (2018). Everything you need to know about the airlines being disrupted by snow.
[online] The Independent. Available at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/london-city-airport-diversions-delays-
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Bertola, L., Cox, T., Wheeler, P., Polenta, V., Garvey, S.D. and Morvan, H., 2017. Reducing
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