Academic Skills Report: COVID-19 Challenges for British Airways

This report delves into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on British Airways, examining the challenges faced by the airline and the strategies it implemented to mitigate the crisis. The report begins with an introduction to COVID-19, its symptoms, and spread, followed by a literature review that explores the concept of COVID-19, the specific challenges encountered by British Airways, such as financial losses, travel restrictions, and reduced passenger demand. The report also outlines the strategies adopted by British Airways, including social distancing measures, digital travel enhancements, and vaccine certifications. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the significant impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry and the importance of the strategies implemented to navigate the pandemic. The report uses multiple sources to support its findings, which are properly referenced.

Academic Skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
What is the Concept of COVID 19?.......................................................................................3
What are the challenges that are faced by British Airways due to COVID 19?....................4
What are the strategies formulated by British Airways to Overcome the Challenges of COVID
19?..........................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
COVID 19 stands for Coronavirus disease 2019; it is a disease which is caused by severe
acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2. In Wuhan, China the first case was founded in
December 2019. From 2019 the disease is spread all over World even in 2021 the virus spread is
continuously ongoing. The Symptoms of COVID 19 includes fever, headache, loss of smell and
taste, cough, breathing difficulties and fatigue. Symptoms will be identified after the exposure to
virus in one to fourteen days (Abu-Rayash and Dincer, 2020). The disease takes one to fourteen
days to affect the body of human; people will not develop noticeable symptoms. Older people
have high risk to get infected with Coronavirus. The disease spread when one person is infected
and another person get in contact, it can be spread from infected person’s mouth and nose
because they sneeze, breathe, speak, cough and sink. The project covers concept of COVID 19
and an impact of disease on British Airways. In this project, the strategy which is taken by
British Airways to overcome the challenges of COVID 19 is also explained.
LITERATURE REVIEW
What is the Concept of COVID 19?
According to Bhuiyan and Bashar (2020), COVID 19 is a type of disease which create a
great impact on individual’s life and make their organs damage. The name COVID 19 stands for
Coronavirus disease and it was referred in 2019. The virus is linked with other viruses as it
contains same type of Cold and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The symptom of
Coronavirus includes shortness of breath, fever and cough. If an individual is in severe condition,
the infection can cause breathing difficulties and pneumonia. The symptoms of COVID 19 are
common to Cold or flu so, it is important to conduct test for confirmation that a person have
Coronavirus or any other disease. The virus gets transfer when a person gets direct contact with
infected person’s respiratory droplets. When an individual, touch the surface containment with
virus and also touch infected person’s nose, mouth and eyes, the virus get transmitted. The major
risk of Coronavirus is for people who are old and person having a chronic medical condition
including heart and diabetes disease.
The spread of COVID 19 get prevented by staying at home when sick, washing hands with
soap and water, sanitize your hands while going outside, clean frequently when touched objects
or surfaces and cover mouth and nose with tissue when sneezing or coughing (Gudmundsson,

Cattaneo and Redondi, 2021). To minimise the risk of transmission, people get recommended to
use face mask and in public areas. For reducing the affect of disease many countries had
developed vaccines and also face failure and difficulty while developing vaccines. The disease
can also affect person’s nose, throat, windpipe, lungs and sinuses. The World was under
lockdown for approx 1 year people were not allowed to go outside their homes due to the spread
of disease. Large number of people was getting infected with Coronavirus due to which WHO
has taken an action and suggest to all Countries to take some strict measures to reduce the spread
of disease.
What are the challenges that are faced by British Airways due to COVID 19?
According to Mustapha, Yazid and Shamsudin (2020), British Airways is one of the largest
airline companies in United Kingdom based on passengers carried and fleet size. The
Headquarter of British Airways is in London and it was created in 1974. Due to COVID 19,
British Airways has faced many problems even their performance and profitability also get
decreased. The CEO of Organisation also said that airline industry cannot recover from COVID
19, if people will not travel and their safety problem will not be addressed first. The aviation
industry is highly affected by the spread of disease due to whole world is in lockdown. The
Company is facing a huge financial loss due to travel restriction and decrease in demand among
travellers. The flights are being cancelled or flying empty between airports due to reduction in
number of passengers which also create an impact on revenue of the Organisation.
The Government mandated that company have to refund the money when flights get
cancelled but due to heavy loss they are offering travel credits and vouchers which can be used
in Future. British airways have cut the job of its quarter of employees due to Coronavirus
Pandemic. Even organisation deals in principle with its various unions, they have cut the jobs as
they are facing huge financial loss (Parr and et. al., 2020). The Company is operating its business
in capacity of around 25-30% according to the changing quarantine rules. British Airways
generates its most of the profit between New York and London Flight but the route is closed due
to travel restriction. Before COVID 19, the organisation was in profitable and growing business
having strong balance sheet and market position. In starting of pandemic, British airways have
sufficient equity to handle the economic crisis but know they are facing a problem to survive in
Market. The Firm even cannot borrow money as it could not address the long term challenges
which they are facing.

What are the strategies formulated by British Airways to Overcome the Challenges of COVID
19?
According to Piccinelli, Moro and Rita (2021), there are various strategies which is taken by
British Airways to overcome the challenges of COVID 19. Maintaining social distancing is one
of the ways to avoid spread of Coronavirus disease, company is following strict guidelines and
procedures to handle the safety and health of its passengers. The sanitizer machines is installed
by British Airways in various areas, staff members also wear disposal PPE kit, they also provide
kit to their customers, testing facility for handling corona suspected patient, face mask and
gloves are distributed in flights and they also provide medical facility including a doctor for 24/7.
These are the precautions which Organisation is taking for the safety and health of the
passengers and give assurance that they will travel comfortably without inflecting from disease
(Sattar and et. al., 2020). The British Airways has also installed UV Sanitizer machines at the
entry, boarding and security gate, Baggage trolley will be properly sanitize and deep cleaning
will be done after every takes off and landing. The Company is putting their more emphasis on
travel digital journey by using latest technology and maintain proper social distancing.
British Airways is opting COVID 19 certification for travelling on Indian routes. The
Organisation is moving ahead with vaccine certification for travel, by coordinating and
uploading proof of vaccination or tests. The Customers have to upload their negative
Coronavirus test and other declaration forms for booking tickets. British Airways has taken a
new initiative in which they are working on simplifying the departure process so that it becomes
easy for passengers to travel comfortably. The Company is doing a great work in handling and
tackling the Coronavirus pandemic, they want UK government must reopen international travel
due to their great progress.
CONCLUSION
From the above information it is being concluded that, COVID 19 hit hard on every business
and people in terms of financial, personal and social factors. All the industry faces huge loss due
to the pandemic whether it is retail industry or Aviation Industry. For the safety of people, WHO
suggested taking an action and keeping the whole World into Lockdown so, that spread of
Coronavirus gets reduced. But the lockdown makes difficulty for people to survive in Society
due to financial crisis.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abu-Rayash, A. and Dincer, I., 2020. Analysis of mobility trends during the COVID-19
coronavirus pandemic: Exploring the impacts on global aviation and travel in selected
cities. Energy research & social science. 68. p.101693.
Bhuiyan, D. and Bashar, A., 2020. The covid-19 pandemic: conceptual model for the global
economic impacts and recovery. The Covid-19 Pandemic: Conceptual Model for the
Global Economic Impacts and Recovery (July 20, 2020).
Gudmundsson, S. V., Cattaneo, M. and Redondi, R., 2021. Forecasting temporal world recovery
in air transport markets in the presence of large economic shocks: The case of COVID-
19. Journal of Air Transport Management. 91. p.102007.
Mustapha, N. N. S. N., Yazid, M. F. M. and Shamsudin, M. F., 2020. How airline industry may
rise post covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Postgraduate Current Business Research. 1(1).
Parr, S and et. al., 2020. Traffic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: Statewide analysis of
social separation and activity restriction. Natural hazards review. 21(3). p.04020025.
Piccinelli, S., Moro, S. and Rita, P., 2021. Air-travelers' concerns emerging from online
comments during the COVID-19 outbreak. Tourism Management. 85. p.104313.
Sattar, M. F and et. al., 2020. Covid-19 global, pandemic impact on world economy. Technium
Soc. Sci. J.. 11. p.165.