Emerging Issues: Crisis Management in Tourism for British Airways

This report provides an in-depth analysis of crisis management within the tourism industry, with a specific focus on British Airways' response to various challenges, including terrorism, natural disasters, political unrest, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The report employs a methodological approach that includes secondary research, analyzing online articles and journals to understand how British Airways has managed its operations during the COVID-19 crisis. It examines the airline's organizational overview, its relationship with the UK government, and the impact of external forces using a PESTLE framework. The report also discusses the merits of UK tourism policies, the impact of the pandemic on British Airways, and the airline's recovery strategies. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, highlighting the critical importance of effective crisis management in the face of an ever-changing business environment. This analysis is valuable for students and professionals seeking to understand the complexities of crisis management in the aviation and tourism sectors.

Emerging Issues in the
Tourism Industry

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Business environment for a organisation consist of various elements that are related to
numerous factors. The decision making process in a organisation relies on factors to adopt
strategies according to present businesses environment. Present report is based on discussion of
conference for policy makers and tourism professionals on issues for attracting of media
internationally (Shafi and et.al 2020). The selected topic is “Crisis management in tourism due
to terrorism, disasters, political and social unrest”. There is critical evaluation of complex
business situations because of pandemic impact of COVID-19 virus.
MAIN BODY
Topic: “crisis management on pandemic about British airlines” a study on British airways.
Methodological approach: There is use of secondary research approach where there is analysis
of information available from existing sources from online available articles & journals.
According to information there is analysis of the way British airlines are willing to manage their
functions in this situation of COVID-19 crisis.
Organisation overview:
British airways plc is a air transport company that was formed in the year 1974 with fusion of
British overseas airways corporation. It has major subsidiaries like BA city flyer and serving
different destinations across UK, continental Europe & open skies between New york and Paris.
British airlines & government:
British airways posses a primary airline hub that is present in Heathrow airport London, and the
headquarters are in Harmsworth England. The majority of business practises are according to
policies and trends of government of UK (Pang and Osman, 2020). UK has detailed regulations
of fair trade practises on its business environment and there is competitive nature of business
environment. UK government has issues several business policies for ensuring that organisation
is able to survive in competitive situation. The competitive policies are about regulations to
ensure that they are competing because of higher efficiency, choices, high quality services, better
pricing and nature of being customer oriented. In the present situation of COVID 19 virus there
has been a impact on the way airlines is settling their claims with government. Such as there was
a dispute related to the policy of government to force visitors to self isolate for a time period of

14 days. This policy was withdrawn in London litigation in July 2020. British Airways attorney
Tom Hickman made a claims that carrier has agreed to drop their action and release their official
guidance. The quarantine policy as introduced in early June to guard against a resurgence in the
present situation of coronavirus cases. It complete affected the requirement of people who were
willing to visit from 50 countries.
There was a policy of Blanket quarantine system that was introduced by U.K government for
entering England. This system has caused serious damages to travel industry and economy. It
was part of a precautionary approach of UK government where the list consist of 50 countries
where the infection rate was extremely high (Courtenay and Perera, 2020). Further EU
restrictions affected other non binding members states where visitors were allowed only from
countries where the number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants in part two weeks was below
the level of RU and trend of new cases have been declining.
British airlines and external forces:
For understand the impact of different external and market force son British airways there is
application of PESTLE framework to determine the positive and negative impact of these factors
on the functioning of organisation:
Political factors:
British airways is a major international airlines that is flying to 400 destinations across world.
Political stability & safety perception of people posses a tremendous impact on British airways.
It consist of factors like corruption level, trade union activities, bureaucracy level. Instances such
as terrorism attacks in Brussels airport in march 2016 had affected the share prices by a decline
of 1.5 percent. COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in impact on the present functioning of
British airways because of changing government policies both for for tourist and airlines.
Economic factors:
There are some economic factors such as currency exchange rates, inflation rates and economic
climate of UK that posses a direct impact on performance of British airways. Economic aspects
includes fuel cost, such as in year 2015 fuel cost for British airways declined by 484 million
pounds as compared to previous year despite of increasing scope of operations. There has been a
rapid fall in prices of oil in past two years that has also caused a decrease in passenger revenue
by 2.8 percent (Bapuji and Allen, 2020).
Social factors:

With the fear of coronavirus there has been shutting down of several airports across world as
several airlines are severely affected. Flybe has stopped their operations and British airways had
to cancel their 216 flights in march with outbreak of corona. There was cancellation of flights to
key destinations such as France Germany new york, Italy, Ireland, Austria. The picornavirus has
affected society in such a way that people are cutting back their travel to foreign destinations.
This changing customer attitude is bound to hit revenue and operations of British airways.
Technological:
Technology is factor that is driver of growth that has lade to development of more fuel efficient
and safe aircraft models. Digital technologies has assisted British airways in their fwirg by
investment in technologies to ensure high efficiency and better services with increased
profitability. The organisation has adopted a approach of digital transformation with merging if
technologies with daily operations. British airways has adopted new technologies in terms if fleet
efficiency and higher customer satisfaction (Lucas, 2020). Other different areas includes cargo
handling, process automation. The techniques of machine learning for extracting of data in
business process has assisted British airways in handling of key challenges from corona virus
with high efficiency.
Environmental:
External environment factors are a concern for airline operators and aviation authorities.
Sustainability is one the core areas of strategic importance for British airways to minimise the
environmental impact of their business model. Sustainability is a core area of strategic
importance for investment to ensure fuel efficiency & reduction of carbon footprint. British
airways has planned to offset their carbon emission for domestic flights and reduce the zero
carbon by year 2020.
Legal factors:
Compliance is critical for aviation industry as non compliance can result in higher fines and
affect the present reputation of brand. Passenger security, customer convenience and timely
adherence are three major factors that are part of legal requirements for British airways. CAA is
the non regulatory authority governing British airways. Labour laws are significant area of
British airways. There has been instances of pilot strikes in year 2019 that has affected the
functioning of British airways. With the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a complete drastic

change in the way there have been changes in the regulatory framework for airlines industry
(Covid-19 impact: British Airways temporarily lays off 28,000 staff, 2020).
From above mentioned external factor affecting both airways in the COVID 19 pandemic
it can be summarised that there has been a drastic impact on the way British airways is
functioning. Such as there have been situation of strike faced because of job cut scenario. British
airways had reported that they are planning to cut down 12000 jobs so that they can survive in
COVID 19 pandemic that wiped out the air travel.
Impact of COVID-19 on British airways:
British airways is forced to cut quarter of their workforce because of corona virus
pandemic impact that is rolling in Europe's biggest airlines. Airways is willing to notify their
labour unions about development of a restructuring program that is affecting its employees. The
airline has warned that losses in the second quarter of 2020 are likely to get more worse. After
end of may British airways furlough 30,000 employees as base of 80 percent of monthly pay.
There have been claims made by British airways that they will pay their idled staff with 80
percent of their pay according to statement made by unite union (Milne, 2020). This is funded
by government of U.K to a value of 2500 pounds under a national plan. But there has been focus
on diverting of pension contributions by employees for a short period of time for topping up their
salaries. European carriers are hit by crisis and there have been claims that they can survive for a
time period of 2 months in average according to claims made by International Air transport
association. According to data of 2018, British residents have been spending about 19.3 billion
pounds on 97.4 million overnight trips.
The major impact of British airways has been to struggling to recover from pandemic because of
consumer worries of virus and newly formed restrictions that are leading to a difficult and tough
recovery (Islam and Fatema, 2020).
Merits of present tourisms policies in UK:
Tourism is one of most crucial sectors of UK economy, it is one of the biggest six
industries and is spending 90 billion pounds every year that consist of 200,000 business and
offering 4.4 percent nation's jobs. It has also lead to creation of employment and wealth with a
cost effective way of regeneration for run down communities (Ioannides and Gyimóthy, 2020).

Tourism is one of very broad sectors as compared to other industries. British tourism is expected
to employ approximate 1.5 million of employees in the year 2020 and 2.9 million of indirect
employment that is from different suppliers of this industry. This sector is delivering a well
balanced jobs range and careers both for part time and full time employees. The major merits of
aviation industry for supporting the tourism growth in UK is because of it there is delivering of
new capacity,
Supporting of regional airports in south east, maintaining a UK hub airport and there is
environment sustainable growth that is viable. There has been predictions that by year 2030 UK
can earn a revenue of 78 billion pounds from spending by inbound visitors of there is availability
of sufficient aviation to meet demands of international visitors. There has been a close
interrelation between tourism and aviation industry that is affecting the growth of UK economy.
But with the COVID-19 pandemic the worlds biggest operator `of 747-400 model had been
affected in a negative manner and there revenues have certainly declined that is leading to a
situation of down turn.
Recovery scenario: With the reducing impact of COVID 19 virus everything is moving towards
back to normal, people and organisation are willing to lead a normal life. For this by end of July
British airways have started their operations towards short haul destinations and small number of
long haul routes such as Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, Iceland, Portugal, Sweden, turkey,
Switzerland. Denmark, Croatia. There has been resume of domestic connections that are taking
place between Belfast, Jersey, Newcastle Manchester and services to Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There has been adoption of measures such as keeping their customers safe that includes checking
online, downloading of boarding pass and self scanning of boarding passes at departure gates
(Gruszczynski, 2020). There is wearing of PPE and cleaning of all surfaces such as screens,
seats, tray tables and seat buckles with proper sanitization., Chairman of British airways has
reported that following months of stress and lock down now people are willing to reunite and
meet their friends, families for this all regular standards of safety have been adopted by British
airways. After six months of planing British airways have also opened a formally criss
management centre (CMC) that is activated by network operations control centre. British

airways has released a proposal request for technology refresh. There is video connectivity that is
catering for analogue & digital technologies. It is assisting in ensuring proper safety of their
employees and passengers. These are some of the measures that are being used by British
airways to ensure proper safety from COVID-19 virus.

CONCLUSION
From above made discussion it can be summarised that aviation industry has been badly affected
because of the changing external environment due to COVID-19 pandemic. There has been
decrease in revenue and profitability that is leading to a crucial affect on the economic scenario
of countries. There are situations of people loosing jobs in aviation & tourism sector as
organisations do not posses any source of revenue so they are not able to provide salaries to their
present workforce and there has been lay off. Tourism industry has contributed greatly towards
development of aviation and other industrial sectors but due to pandemic impact these two
sectors have faced a major downfall.

REFERENCE
Books and Journal
Shafi, A.M., Atieh, A.E., Harky, A., Sheikh, A.M. and Awad, W.I., 2020. Impact of COVID‐19
on cardiac surgical training: Our experience in the United Kingdom. Journal of Cardiac
Surgery, 35(8), pp.1954-1957.
Pang, K.H. and Osman, N.I., 2020. Asymptomatic COVID-19 infection in a patient evaluated for
ureteric colic: radiological findings and impact on management. Urology.
Courtenay, K. and Perera, B., 2020. COVID-19 and People with Intellectual Disability: impacts
of a pandemic. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, pp.1-21.
Bapuji, H., Patel, C., Ertug, G. and Allen, D.G., 2020. Corona crisis and inequality: Why
management research needs a societal turn.
Lucas, B., 2020. Impacts of Covid-19 on Inclusive Economic Growth in Middle-income
Countries.
Milne, A., 2020. A critical COVID-19 economic policy tool: Retrospective insurance. Available
at SSRN 3558667.
Islam, M.M. and Fatema, F., 2020. Covid-19 and Sustainable Tourism. Asian Business
Review, 10(1), pp.53-60.
Ioannides, D. and Gyimóthy, S., 2020. The COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity for escaping the
unsustainable global tourism path. Tourism Geographies, pp.1-9.
Gruszczynski, L., 2020. The COVID-19 Pandemic and International Trade: Temporary
Turbulence or Paradigm Shift?. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 11(2), pp.337-342.
Online
Covid-19 impact: British Airways temporarily lays off 28,000 staff, 2020 [online], Available
through<https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/covid-19-impact-british-airways-
temporarily-lays-off-28-000-staff-11585846474358.html>