Cabin crew working for British Airways have been slammed for not doing enough to help the recession hit airline. Jonathan Strickland, an aviation expert was talking at this years World Travel Market when he pointed a finger at BA employees for not helping the airline’s CEO Willie Walsh adapt to the modern market. They are due to vote on whether or not to strike in the run up to Christmas over working conditions and pay. He said that airlines now had to focus more on costs rather than just the traditional glamour associated with air travel. Strickland went on to tell the Vision Global Economic Forum that BA needed to keep up with airlines such as Ryanair who are managing to supply quality service without the enormous costs.

Walsh also spoke to the forum in a pre-recorded video. He said that the main challenge facing British Airways at present was to make sure that it was striking the right balance between demand for seats and the supply of those seats. He said that the business was going to have to bring itself in line with the drop in demand.

Both Walsh and Strickland talked about the impact of the loss of the business passenger on premium airlines. Walsh said it was obvious that the global economic downturn had had a devastating impact of the numbers of people flying in the airlines first class and business cabins. Strickland said that because airlines cannot be sure whether or not these passengers would be returning then business models had to be made to adapt. He went on to say that BA was trying to do this by reducing capacity.