British Airways Swot Analysis

Marketing Assignment – British Airways

The purpose of this assignment is to examine British Airways (BA) marketing environment, both internal and external. Furthermore I will carry out a SWOT analysis on the company, which will consequently lead me to making strategic recommendations.
British Airways is the UK’s largest international scheduled airline, offering year-round low fares with an extensive global route network flying to and from centrally-located airports (www.britishairways.com1). British Airways are now on the steady recovery from their 2008/9 cabin crew strikes. In the April – June quarter in 2009 the company reported a pre-tax loss of £164m, larger than the £148m loss it made in the same period last year, with revenues at the airline down 2.3% (www.bbc.co.uk1). British Airways have only recently recorded their first profit in two years; their half-year profit was recorded at £158, with revenues up 8.4% to £4.4 billion (www.bbc.co.uk2).
British Airways – Macro Environment
Socio – Cultural Factors
It is crucial for organizations that ultimately want success to focus on their socio-cultural environment, it is here that they develop an understanding of their customers and what drives them. As technology develops people are becoming increasingly dependent on the internet. As the Office of National Statistics reports 60% (30.1 million) of UK adults in 2010 are using the internet every day, or almost every day. This figure shadows the 16.5% of adults using the internet in 2006 (www.statistics.gov.uk1). Internet use is linked to socio-cultural and demographic indicators. 60% of over 65’s had never used the internet, in comparison to the 1% of 16-24 (www.statistics.gov.uk2). British Airways therefore have an instant booking section on their homepage, named ‘Create a Trip’ (www.britishairways.com3). This entices any of the 30.1 million adults that are trying to book a holiday to book swiftly and is a clear example of BA utilizing the fast growing...