BA mulls over Saudi Arabia re-entry

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BAIRD: KSA is one market 'under review'.

British Airways has not ruled out re-introducing services to Saudi Arabia, but the move is unlikely to happen until the airline receives new aircraft deliveries.

That was the verdict from BA's CEO for Asia Pacific, Robbie Baird, who revealed that KSA, Korea and "more points in China and India" were under review.

"But we have a number of years before new aircraft are coming (24 Boeing 787 aircraft and 12 A380 aircraft)," he told ATN.

"When they arrive [between 2012 and 2014], that's the point where we can significantly grow."

BA ceased its Saudi Arabia operations post-9/11 and in November slashed its commission payments to agents based in the Kingdom to 0%.

In the meantime, rival UK carrier bmi has expanded its KSA presence and most recently introduced a three times weekly Dammam-London Heathrow service (March 1).

Baird said the combination of high fuel prices and the threat of global recession meant BA was not looking to embark on a major growth programme at present.

"Our growth has pretty much come to a stop; we are growing very flatly year on year," he said.

"We saw some growth a few years ago - with Beijing daily, Shanghai six times weekly, 43 flights to India - and we have just announced another five (Hyderabad), and Hong Kong three times daily. It takes time to grow into that."

He acknowledged that one of his recent challenges had been to ensure that aircraft were correctly positioned.

"The focus is changing from the North Atlantic towards Asia and the Middle East," he said.

"We do have a strategy to broaden our network and some serious consideration should be given to growing our non-North Atlantic routes, but the North Atlantic is still a huge source of business for BA and is one of our unique points as an airline. No one can match us with our network; we operate more than 40 North Atlantic flights daily."

Baird said that if a global recession did hit in 2008, BA would be prepared.

"If you look back in our history we have always managed our business. Post-9/11, there was no quarter when we didn't break even or make a profit," he explained.

"We will always manage our business to sustain profitability. It's more difficult for a [travel supplier like a] hotel, because you can't change where you have built it, but we can change where we point our aircraft."

He conceded that the "signs of recession over the past few months" had impacted BA's business as the banks were "starting to draw in their belts" and making sure their staff took fewer trips.

"We therefore have to make sure that the trips they do take are with British Airways," he concluded.

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