Aviation

Inexperienced BA boss who oversaw cost-cutting drive is blamed for IT meltdown that could cost 150M.

According to Daily mail British Airways boss Alex Cruz has been blamed for causing the computer meltdown that saw thousands of passengers stranded on Saturday after outsourcing hundreds of IT job to India.
Mr Cruz, who founded low-cost carrier Clickair and headed budget airline Vueling before being appointed BA chief last year, was accused of replacing highly-skilled British IT professionals with low-cost overseas workers.

GMB union chiefs said the IT outage, which experts believed could cost the airline £150million in compensation, would have been avoided if those jobs had been allowed to remain in the UK.
The accusation came as people stuck at Heathrow, where dozens more flights were cancelled on Sunday, vented their fury – describing the situation there as ‘leaderless’ and ‘chaotic’.

Flights were taking off from Gatwick on Sunday, though some were running with an hour of delays.
Since being appointed in April last year, Mr Cruz has overseen a cost-cutting drive that removed free food from short-haul flights and has seen customer satisfaction plunge.

A Which? report in December last year found that average customer satisfaction with BA had fallen to 67 per cent for short-haul and 60 per cent for long-haul flights, putting it 10th in a table of 23 British carriers.

The airline’s value for money rating dropped from three stars last year to two, while its food rating also fell from four stars down to two.

Aviation

Boeing, Antonov to Collaborate on Defense Projects

– MOU represents Boeing’s commitment to work with Ukrainian industry

– Includes exploring opportunities for collaborating on in-country support of Unmanned Aerial Systems

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed today by Boeing and Antonov Company to investigate potential collaboration on defense-related projects.

“We’re happy to keep collaborating with the Antonov Company to help Ukraine’s economic development and expansion,” stated Ted Colbert, CEO and president of Boeing Defence, Space, & Security.

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“This agreement demonstrates our ongoing efforts to find more opportunities to work with Ukrainian industry, which was underscored by our signing of the Ukrainian Defence Industry Compact earlier this year.”

The areas of potential collaboration identified in the agreement consist of training, logistical support and overhaul services for tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems utilized by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which includes the ScanEagle. In addition, the companies will also explore opportunities for Antonov to provide engineering support to Boeing.

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“A strong, innovative, and efficient defense industry is key to sustainable economic development and national security, and we are extremely excited to collaborate with Boeing,” said Ievhen Gavrylov, CEO of Antonov Company.

This agreement brings a whole new level of opportunity to implement the latest and most effective solutions – in addition to the possibility of future projects with Boeing in the aerospace and defense industry.”