If you were responsible for BA's onboard meals...

Considering Gate Gourmet's unhelpful ultimatum regarding bankruptcy and contracts and immediate renewal, what would you do if you were making decisions for BA, seeing as another walkout wouldn't be conducive to good PR.

I can't think of a solution that doesn't involve the lesser of 2 evils myself, but there are some people on this forum who are very savvy regarding airline logistics and I would be interested to get their opinions on this saga.

BA are in a biot of a cleft stick really. They need to have someone provide the meals from tomorrow onwards, and GG know this.
The other food service providers would be interested, but would need to have time to bring all the services and capacity on line.
Plus what we do not know is if it is a profitable contrasct, or have BA tried to use their size to keep the profit margin down to a bare minimum.

the best thing is for BA to have a short term contract wioth GG and put the service out to tender in the usual manner

[fozzyo]

Originally posted by AlanA
the best thing is for BA to have a short term contract wioth GG and put the service out to tender in the usual manner

Would it be too controversial for them to consider bringing catering back in-house?

Foz xx

Foz, its something that can be looked at and nmany companies who did outsource are, when the contract come up for renewal putting together "shadow" bids.
But again, they would need time to impliment this as I would imagine GG would not sell them their equipment! [8D]

Based on figures on the news yesterday I did the maths.

BA get 65,000 meals a day and GG lost 22million last year. I guess GG do a few partner flights to but the losses amount to about £1 per meal which seems like madness.

BA have already said they will renew the contract if GG can sort out their mess but I guess they want the contract before they sort it out.

I guess if I was BA my first concern would be make sure that my own staff are not going to restrike. From what I understand the strike last time was in a large part caused by BA staff who had relatives involved in the GG fiasco. So I guess it might mean some under the table deals involving these key staff e.g. cash incentives, re-employment of some relatives/spouses etc.

Secondly I would hedge my bets and award a short-term contract to GG for a percentage of the operation - e.g. long-haul. The risk being that this could ean additional sackings to reduce headcount.

I would then get myself another supplier for the rest of the operation e.g. short-haul. But go for reliability - not price.

I think the main thing is that BA need to be realistic and realise that good service costs money. The one thing this latest debacle should have taught them is that in the close knit Heathrow community it is difficult to remain immune by simply outsourcing and then declaring that it is not your fault.

Phil (Buffy)

If this means some behind the scenes assurances about spouses being given their old jobs back then
to reassure my own staff that their I would offer GG a short-term contract for the long-haul operation

Originally posted by AlanA
...as I would imagine GG would not sell them their equipment! [8D]

Of course if GG go into administration it would be out of their hands as to who can buy equipment.

Phil (Buffy)

Apparently an unofficial BA spokesperson has said that hell would freeze over before BA brings catering back in-house.

Originally posted by BuffyTVS65

Originally posted by AlanA
...as I would imagine GG would not sell them their equipment! [8D]

Of course if GG go into administration it would be out of their hands as to who can buy equipment.

Phil (Buffy)

Phil.
they would move all to good stuff out before that happens, plus you do not know what is bought or leased of course

[fozzyo]

Originally posted by lilyjosh0
Apparently an unofficial BA spokesperson has said that hell would freeze over before BA brings catering back in-house.

Why is having it in-house so scary? They lost £30million in revenue and how much extra in bad publicity by having it outsourced, surely that doesn't make good business sense.

Foz xxx

Edit: Added link for source of £30m figure

The advantages in outsourcing are that you are not responsible for staffing, additional costs etc..you just pay a fixed price..
However as BA discovered LHR is a small community and a large number of GG staff worked for BA's old catering company so sympathy strikes were always a possibility.

Most companies have disaster recovery plans. I'm surprised BA didn't have backup catering contracts in the USA etc to lessen the pain of the GG insident.

Of course there's very little BA could do about their bagage handlers striking..(but BA don't seem very luck in this regard![:0])

If I was responsible, Id make them really awful and tell everyone to fly Virgin!!! [}:)]