New strategy for BA

Sir, British Airways has announced further job losses of 5,800 in addition to the 7,200 announced late last year (report, February 14).

BA has got its strategy badly wrong. This has been demonstrated most recently by the use of Sir David Frost in a ?5 million advertising campaign to sell the idea of premium ?bed seats? to business customers (report, Business, January 9). Instead of trying to sell business people the idea of buying one seat in first or club class for the price of a whole row in economy class, BA should concentrate on filling its planes by selling sensibly priced tickets. It has shown it can do this with the recent limited price cuts in the wake of September 11.

The full retail price of BA tickets is little more than a joke; there can hardly be a passenger today who isn?t aware that bucket shops and some agents offer exactly the same tickets for a fraction of the price, even after their commission is taken into account.

BA should scrap the business seat strategy, cut the premium sector marketing spend and channel those resources into filling its planes with realistically priced tickets.

CHRIS D. KELLY
Wolverhampton, West Midlands