The Business Studies Lessons from Terminal 5
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Rarely can there have been a business news story that provides such a rich source of business studies content.
The disastrous opening of BA’s new Terminal 5 has been superbly covered by the print and television media, creating a wealth of that resources can be accessed where relevant.
I spent a few minutes jotting down some possible applications for our business students, and would welcome your suggestions too (submit them using the comments box below):
Finance
- Cost of cancelled flights and customer refunds & allowances
Economics
- How the local Heathrow hotels suddenly increased their prices to around £225 per person when faced with the significant increase in demand from BA customers who needed overnight accommodation
Marketing:
- Failed product launches: on the morning of Day One, Walsh was smiling, welcoming the first passengers to his wonderful new terminal. The website assured readers that Terminal 5’s baggage-handling system ‘will move your bags through the airport faster than you can move yourself’.
- Customer service - very little customer communication on Day One as the problems emerged; distressed travellers paid inflated prices for emergency overnight hotels.
Strategic planning:
- Contingency planning - sparse manning, insufficient dry runs, failure to test properly the new systems and lack of contingency planning by BAA, owner of the airport, and BA were exposed.
People management:
Lack of training - one BA baggage handler said there had been only four ‘familiarisation days’ before Terminal 5 - a small city in scale - went live.
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