Renaissance: A revenue management change programme at British Airways

British Airways (BA) started out with initial research into origin and destination (O&D) as early as 1994. At that point it was purely a system development project. As time moved on, it became clear that O&D would have a major impact on processes, job roles and the way people worked in and outside the department. The world was changing around us. Old ways of doing things were becoming strained and were not going to deliver. It become clear that a comprehensive re-engineering of the department was required. If you think O&D is a systems capability to just slot into your current organisation, read on, because there is a bit more work to it than that. This paper highlights how BA approached the issues and built a change programme around O&D, but not driven by O&D. It is doubtful that any airline O&D system comes with a comprehensive manual. It contains lots of handy tips but the user will have to work out how best to install it into the business to maximise the potential benefits.