Has British Airways thrown Alex Cruz under the bus?

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An interesting article appeared in the Mail on Sunday yesterday entitled “British Airways’ blueprint to go upmarket again”.

I am not going to go into the article in detail, since there is nothing in it which will be news to regular Head for Points readers.

What DID make me do a double-take was this paragraph:

“It marks a huge shift for BA under new boss Sean Doyle, whose predecessor Alex Cruz was accused by investors and passengers of trying to take BA downmarket and compete with budget airlines such as Ryanair. BA said the change in strategy had begun under Cruz but the airline is now able to accelerate its plans.“

This is, I think, very disingenuous. The lead-time to get anything done in aviation is measured in years, not months. The requirement to thoroughly safety-test everything means that you can’t move quickly, even if you want to.

It is simply not true that Sean Doyle is the architect of the changes that are now being put in place. Whilst HfP was far from being Alex Cruz’s biggest cheerleader, I personally liked him and in many ways he was simply a puppet for Willie Walsh, then Chief Executive of BA’s parent company IAG.

Let’s take a look at every single British Airways ‘improvement’ listed in the Mail on Sunday article. Remember that Sean Doyle was at Aer Lingus until he took over at BA last Autumn and so had no input, at all, into anything the airline did before that.

“new digital ordering systems for in-flight meals” on short-haul – this was announced by Sean Doyle, I admit. However, the termination of the Marks & Spencer contract was announced on 26th October. Cruz was fired on 12th October but the M&S decision would obviously have been taken by then. I have been told that the move back to ‘free water and a snack’ in Economy had been signed-off by Cruz at the same time.

“Long-haul passengers in premium cabins will be served food from gourmet menus prepared by chefs in new kitchens next to the runways at Heathrow” – the Do&Co catering contract was announced in September 2018

“Cabin crew will get new uniforms designed by Savile Row tailor Ozwald Boateng” – the Ozwald Boateng uniforms were announced in September 2018, to be rolled out for the #BA100 celebrations in 2020 (ahem)

“new flat-bed seats, with a door to the aisle, are being installed in business class” – Club Suite was launched in March 2019

“From this week, First Class passengers flying from Heathrow will be able to recharge before their flights in ‘Sleep Pods'” – this is likely to be a Sean Doyle innovation, but it is a replacement for the Elemis Spa treatments in the lounges which have been scrapped as a cost saving measure

“It has also set up partnership with a company called AirPortr that allows customers to pay £150 to have their bags collected from their home and checked in.” – indeed it has, but the AirPortr partnership with BA was launched at Terminal 5 in December 2015. This contract even predates Alex Cruz, who only became British Airways CEO in April 2016.

It is true that there is some good stuff going on at British Airways at the moment. What isn’t true is the narrative that this is due to Sean Doyle riding in from Aer Lingus to change everything that the nasty old Mr Cruz put in place.

PS. If the phrase ‘thrown under the bus’ makes no sense to you, you can catch up here.

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This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Sigma421 says:

17 May17 May 07:58

I agree that Alex has probably been harshly treated by history but that’s just the way of these things. In reality, Keith Williams who as far as I can tell did precisely nothing during the years he was at the top was a bigger culprit.

However, companies often use the changing of the CEO as a chance to do a mission reset and they’re paid enough to take this as far as I’m concerned
- JAXBA says:
  
  17 May17 May 10:17
  
  KW relaunched ‘To Fly, To Serve’ and the crew got iPads under him, to name a couple of initiatives. Frank van der Post, MD for Brand and Customer Experience was appointed under KW; I understand that they both wanted to do more to improve BA service but they were limited by WW at IAG. KW was previously BA CFO, but had a customer focus. WW had a cost focus. Exit KW, enter Álex Cruz…
WaynedP says:

17 May17 May 08:13

Sycophantism in editorials is completely inappropriate, I agree, and would be a big turn off for me and many others.

However, I don’t see any of that in what Rob wrote.

HfP have nothing to gain or lose from any special attachment to Alex Cruz.

My take on Rob’s comment is that it adds to impartiality by offering an insightful counterpoint to any bias implied by DM editorial or perhaps by the impression they received from BA Press Office, compounded by an acknowledged anti-AC sentiment from some quarters.

The fact that it is a personal insight on Rob’s part doesn’t diminish its value or credibility in my eyes.
Matarredonda says:

17 May17 May 08:46

Anything printed in the Daily Fail has doubtful value
Personally I much preferred the M & S offering as a bag of crisps and a bottle of water is hardly valuable.
- John T says:
  
  17 May17 May 10:01
  
  It’s impossible to please everybody with BoB vs free snack. Some people don’t want to pay for food on a full service airline, no matter how meagre the snack, others want more choice and wouldn’t eat a packet of crisps even if free.
  Some of the meals served on full service airlines in the past have been so bad I honestly don’t know why they bother serving anything.
- Ryan Gill says:
  
  17 May17 May 13:22
  
  Daily Fail, “tee hee”. Do u work in the Public Sector by any chance? My Mrs uses this tag with her workmates. Ironic usage as the DM has been very successful over the years at highlighting waste in the Legal Aid area she works in.
  - Lord Doncaster says:
    
    17 May17 May 16:34
    
    Indeed. The Daily Mail and Sun are far more popular than the Guardian…No takers for the latter in Doncaster 😂
    - bafan says:
      
      17 May17 May 23:22
      
      I read The Guardian and I’m not even sure where Doncaster is…
Farid says:

17 May17 May 08:52

Have you not heard of the saying : when a new CEO takes up a new role, they discuss with their predecessor and ask them to give advice:
The predecessor CEO says, I will write letters to you and you should open them in order :
first letter says : blame your predecessor
Second later says : blame the Global economic situation
Third letter says : prepare 3 letters to your successor.
New BA CEO just opened the first letter…
AJA says:

17 May17 May 09:02

I haven’t read the article in the DM nor indeed even read this one fully either but I think the tone is basically an advertorial reset of BA under Mr Doyle versus what happened under Mr Cruz in an attempt to get us all flying again after the last 18 months.

We HfP’ers and FlyerTalker’s are generally a more informed bunch than the average flyer and will acknowledge that much of what Mr Doyle appears to credited with are not even decisions made entirely by either him or Mr Cruz despite them being the current and previous CEO.

Mr Cruz became toxic to IAG / BA which is why he was finally fired after all of the disasters that happened from IT meltdown to data breach and everything else that went wrong during his tenure. It was only a matter of time before BA used this as a PR stunt to say they’ve had a reset.

I doubt Mr Cruz is that upset. It goes with the territory and is classic blame the old guy for the mess, I’m the new saviour putting things right.
- marcw says:
  
  17 May17 May 09:20
  
  It’s a “seeking positive PR by BA”. Nothing else than that.
- kitten says:
  
  17 May17 May 17:25
  
  Yup. Like your new hairdresser pulls up a clump of hair and says “Who cut that then”
cinereus says:

17 May17 May 09:25

The Mail? Disingenuous? Surely some mistake?
Journeying John says:

17 May17 May 09:27

Irrespective of who did what, passengers are still not receiving the service paid for in many cases. The changes listed in the article have practically all been announced already and do not address the real issues ie. Appalling IT infrastructure, densified cabins, missing or absent catering, non functional WiFi / IFE and sector trailing customer service and communications.
IF BA are to recover & enjoy a return to healthy passenger numbers, it will take far more than a bit of PR gloss and advertorial but a fundamental rethink of what they deliver (As opposed to what’s marketed) in the context of the markets in which they operate.
- Opuada says:
  
  18 May18 May 10:29
  
  Passenger numbers has never been their problem. So this is landing on deaf ears
L Allen says:

17 May17 May 09:47

It’s a Daily Fail article, totally to be expected. Journalistic rigor does not apply to that paper.
- Anna says:
  
  17 May17 May 11:43
  
  Well it’s difficult to assess the physical condition of the journalists, but certainly their rigour, or lack of, can be determined!
- Lady London says:
  
  17 May17 May 17:26
  
  +1 was completely misquoted by them once