SWOT and PESTEL analysis of British Airways

This report provides a SWOT and PESTEL analysis of British Airways, highlighting the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by the company. It also discusses the influence of PESTEL on SWOT, leadership style, and corporate social responsibility.

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SWOT and PESTEL analysis of
British Airways

Executive summary
There are many different parameters which impact the business of the British airways.
This report deals with the macro economical factors which plays a huge importance in the
business of airlines such as in British airways. The framework used tells about the strengths
which are used to negate the threats and the weaknesses which are coming in the way of gaining
opportunities. It tell about the importance for British Airways to follow the corporate social
responsibility and work ethically.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
SWOT ANALYSIS OF BRITISH AIRWAYS ..............................................................................4
PESTEL ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................4
INFLUENCE OF PESTEL ON SWOT .........................................................................................5
Social threats and opportunities...................................................................................................5
Economic opportunities and threats.............................................................................................5
Political threats............................................................................................................................6
Legal threats.................................................................................................................................6
LEADERSHIP STYLE IN THE ORGANISATION......................................................................6
SUITABLE LEADERSHIP STYLE...............................................................................................7
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

l壱INTRODUCTION
British airways is one of the leading airline companies operating in UK. Being a leading
company, British airways has to face many types of challenges as well as opportunities from the
external and internal factors. Pestel analysis is a framework which is used to analyse the key
factors which have the power to influence the operations of the organisation (Karami, 2017). It
helps in providing an insight in the external factors which can affect the organisation. However,
SWOT analysis is more about the actions taken. British Airways is a trusted company and the
flag carrier of UK. This report also deals with different types of leadership styles and the
responsibility followed by the company.
l壱SWOT ANALYSIS OF BRITISH AIRWAYS
Strengths: British Airways is a very trusted brand and has a global scale identity. This makes the
brand easily recognisable. The company has better IT integration with the services offered. The
company is also a market leader in UK having huge fleet size.
Weakness: There are several employees related issues which leads to service disruptions. This
company follows an easily imitable business model. There are also many disruptions due to the
issues in the infrastructure systems.
Opportunity: British Airways have the opportunity to venture in the global operations that is to
start the business operation in new locations (Efthymiou and et.al., 2018). It can also form
alliances with some other global airlines which can help in boosting the business of airline.
Along with this the company has the opportunity to partner with different aviation companies
and expand the business.
Threats: There rise in fuel prices is a major threat which can reduce the profit margins. There is
also rise in labour costs with the increase in competition in the European market which can
adversely affect the market share of British Airways.
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l壱PESTEL ANALYSIS
Political: There are many strikes from the employee union in UK which leads to affecting the
airline services as well as the brand image. There is a situation of uncertainty is created after the
Brexit which lead the the airline lose their influence on the European framework.

Economical: Lower prices of fuel have helped in increasing the profits of the airlines. Brexit
affected major investments of the company.
Social: There is a increased perception of British airways being a low cost carrier. Company
focus on giving best customer experience (Mills, 2017).
Technological: British airways is moving forward to invest more in technology in the use of
warehouse management systems and also helps in improving the customer experience. Use of
technology makes the work easy.
Environmental: Airline industry is the major contributor in carbon pollution. It is important for
the company to take the permits for operating in the European Union region.
Legal: There are many settlement payments which are made to the employees against the
imposed lawsuits.
l壱INFLUENCE OF PESTEL ON SWOT
l弐Social threats and opportunities
Social factors play an important role in the aviation industry. The main target audience
for the British Airlines is the Millennials and the business people. The travel habits of the
Millennials are very different when compared to the other generations and are ready to spend
more on their air travels. Consumers look more for the safety and convenience matters and
therefore have become an important factor in the flight operating business of the British
Airways. The social image of the company and reputation in the market is used as an important
factor leading to positive profits for the company (O’Neill, 2018). The company excels in giving
customer experience while also putting more focus on operational efficiency, reliability and its
social image as an opportunity to gain more customers and and earn positive points. The
outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic has hit the whole of a industry hard. British airways had to
cancel many flights due to the shutdown of the airports in areas of the world. This becomes a
major threat for the company. The fear of pandemic lives in people which is making them cut
back travelling especially for the foreign destinations. This took a major hit on the generation of
the revenues of British Airways.
l弐Economic opportunities and threats
Economic factors and changes in the economy has a direct impact on the business of
British Airways. The slow down of the country's economy have resulted in negative impact on

the profit margins of the company. Moreover, the economic condition in UK is very uncertain
due to the Brexit effects which lead to inflation, new flying rules and increase in operating
prices. British Airways have the ability to sustain in the market and grow by focusing on
strategic areas like customer experience. Adapting to the business and changing its approach
with the changing economic conditions is the opportunity for the company to regain the profits.
Even during the time of Brexit, British Airways has seen to have a growth in their revenue.
l弐Political threats
Political factors are playing the central role in the operations of aviation industry. The
level of political stability as well as the political environment of UK impacts the profits of the
firm. British airways and all the other airlines are regulated by the EU legislation while in UK it
is regulated with the civil aviation authority which looks into the safety standards, security issues
and the rights of customers. Brexit has effected the border, custom and immigration laws for the
air travel. Employees are the soul of the soul of the company and there is increase in employee
strikes over time regarding the issues of low pay and other benefits. Such strikes can take away
the large number of employees which leads to disruption of the operations and affected the
image of the brand. These factors are being a threat to the company.
l弐Legal threats
Legal factors includes the laws which are related to the labour and different operational
areas which are important to maintain with the domestic as well as international markets. There
are many safety laws imposed which are very specific for the airlines as the industry deals with
the actual lives of people. Any accidents in the flights can come with a law suit for the company.
Civil aviation authority is the main regulatory body in UK which has more international
regulations which are vital for the operations when flying internationally (Sun and Wandelt,
2018). The company faced many challenges due to the strike of pilots as the company lost the
legal attempt to block the planned strike. They has to pay the settlement to avoid the disruptions
in the business operations. The lawsuits against the company regarding the safety matters can
bring the reputation to the ground as well as, customers fly in the airlines in which they have a
trust on and these law suits will makes them think twice before choosing this airlines for their
travel.

l壱LEADERSHIP STYLE IN THE ORGANISATION
Leadership is regarded to be an important phenomena in every organisation. In order to deal
with the management and its policies it is necessary that the leaders will have to incorporate all
the challenging factors in order to move ahead with the growth prospect. Leadership is also
defined to be one of the major activities that will bring about enthusiasm in the midst of
members of the team or a group. The British Airways is regarded to be one of the largest
aviation industry in United Kingdom and its operations are said to be worth cherishing. This
organisation has been into services that will bring about International and Domestic carriages (Al
Khajeh, 2018). The organisation is moulded in such a way that all the leaders that are present in
this organisation will pave way for successful start their work towards the entities that are
required and the components that will have to be derived and the model the incorporate is said to
be the one that will strategically align every employee into the means of development. The
leaders are oriented in such a way that their vision is said to be one of the inspiring factor and
every member of the team can derive their mission and vision from the goals that are stimulated
by the leaders. Although there are set of challenges that are being presented by the organisation
at the organisation never step back in order to develop and motivate the required potential
among the crew. The organisation is in such a manner that every leader in the organisation will
bring about the inner consciousness of the employees and help them to act accordingly. It is not
until when every member of the trim perform their duties in the better possible manner that the
get to incorporate the policies and to achieve the objectives in time. The leadership of the
organisation British Airways is into such a way that it encourages the best of everybody is ability
to monitor and to derive things that are necessary for the innovation as well as implementation
policies. This leadership of this organisation is also derived to be at charishmatic leadership. The
leaders are responsible towards the given work to all the members of the team and a monitor
them at regular intervals (Gandolfi and et.al, 2018). The exciting factor in this regard as the
transformation that is being obtained by the leaders and the awareness they create upon certain
vision and the mission. The Organisation was once in the midst of competition and also regarded
to be one of the low cost Airlines. When people like Willy Walsh vistited, it was more like a
profit making carrier and that got struck his mind towards different characteristics that will bring
about attention towards the strong minded and confident employees of the organisation.

l壱SUITABLE LEADERSHIP STYLE
The suitable leadership style that will fall in regard to the British Airways company will deal
with the transformational leadership as well as the transactional leadership. The transactional
leadership is required in order to move ahead with the policies of motivation that is required for
individuals in order to revert the work that is being stipulated. There are certain punishment that
are in due of employees who are not performing the duties in a responsible manner. The
transformational leadership will help to move ahead with the vision of transforming the
strategies into better ideologies such that they can pave way into more implementation that can
be derived in the organisation (Huertas-Valdivia and et.al, 2019). It is necessary that every
achievement will have to fulfil the vision and that will not be compromised and an ideal vision
will also be an influential aspect for all the people in the organisation. There is also a charismatic
leadership that is portrayed in how far the leaders are being able to use their power in order to
determine the interactions that are necessary with the members of the team and they are also
regarded to be extremely important. The situation and leadership theory is also important to be
inherited by the organisation because this leadership quality will reflect upon different
dependable entities that will result in appropriate actions that are required for the situation.
l壱CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
For the organisations that are dealing with immense growth prospects it is always necessary that
the international as well as the national policies will lie in deriving the masses. The sustainability
is considered to be one of the factor that will have to be self regulated by every organisation
such that the article policies will contribute for a greater social interference. In this regard the
corporate social responsibility is defined to be one of the factor that will bring about
organisations to a very ethical platform that will also derive the benefits and goals that are
associated with the organisation (Demir and Budur, 2019). The significance of Corporate Social
Responsibility is to deal with activities that will be sometimes non-profit as well as the policies
will we are replica of society friendly workplace. British Airlines is considered to be one of the
most famous airline industry in United Kingdom. This is also known to be the second largest and
is also listed on the London Stock Exchange. The corporate social responsibility will deal with
resource management analysis and also the issues that are related with certain resource
allocations. Resources are set to be one of the prominent aspects for the organisation and also
regarded to be the effect. The environmental policies will not have to be affected while dealing

with organisational implementations. in this regard the organisation British Airways contribute
to itself for the economic responsibilities that are a part of deriving cost effective means. Certain
campaigns are also taken care about by the organisation like that of clean development
mechanism which means that the organisation is more focused towards reducing the emissions
are the carbon emissions and also deforestation aspects. Every industry when in the age of
development will bring about certain changes in the environmental processes. This
environmental processes will not have to affect the atmosphere as well as the people around. in
this regard the corporate social responsibility will throw limelight into certain aspects of social
responsibilities that are in due of local communities. There is an empowerment that is linked
with different campaigns and that with regard to British Airways is said to be the one that will
help organisation to move ahead with the responsibility of employee benefits as well as the
environmental benefit (Abasilim and et.al, 2019). Sustainability is practised from over ages and
therefore this organisation is also regarded to be one of the second most spending organisation
event in terms of Aviation industry.
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l壱CONCLUSION
The entire report conclusion upon identifying the aspects of the internal analysis that in regard to
the organisation British Airways. Through this report one can easily understand the different
internal and external analysis and the practices that are incorporated in the organisation to bring
about a sustainable environment. The swot analysis and PESTEL analysis are put forth in this
report with a prior explanation which is given to all the components. The different influential
factors with regard to threats and opportunities is explained in the report. Leadership style in the
organisation and the appropriate leadership style which can be suitable for every aspect of the
organisation is being put forth in this report. The corporate social responsibility that is in regard
to the organisation is also depicted with all the available means and sustainable measures.
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l壱REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Efthymiou and et.al., 2018. The Impact of Delays on Customers' Satisfaction: an Empirical
Analysis of the British Airways On-Time Performance at Heathrow Airport. Journal of
Aerospace Technology and Management. 11.
Karami, A., 2017. Corporate strategy: evidence from British Airways plc. In The Changing
Patterns of Human Resource Management (pp. 46-64). Routledge.
Mills, A.J., 2017. The gendering of organizational culture: Social and organizational discourses
in the making of British Airways?. In Insights and Research on the Study of Gender and
Intersectionality in International Airline Cultures. Emerald Publishing Limited.
O’Neill, B., 2018. Developing future leaders at British Airways. In The Photofit Manager (pp.
72-89). Routledge.
Sun, X. and Wandelt, S., 2018. Complementary strengths of airlines under network disruptions.
Safety science. 103. pp.76-87.
Al Khajeh, 2018. Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of Human
Resources Management Research. 2018. pp.1-10.
Gandolfi and et.al, 2018. Leadership, leadership styles, and servant leadership. Journal of
Management Research. 18(4). pp.261-269.
Huertas-Valdivia and et.al, 2019. Effects of different leadership styles on hospitality workers.
Tourism management. 71. pp.402-420.
Demir and Budur, 2019. Roles of leadership styles in corporate social responsibility to non-
governmental organizations (NGOs). International Journal of Social Sciences &
Educational Studies. 5(4). pp.174-183.
Abasilim and et.al, 2019. Leadership styles and employees’ commitment: Empirical evidence
from Nigeria. Sage Open. 9(3). p.2158244019866287.