Following recent restructuring, British Airways wholly owned regional subsidiary BA CitiExpress (BACE) “is on track to stop the bleeding,” but will need at least another year to meet profitability targets, company officials predict. The airline has made
significant progress toward its goal of flying an all-jet fleet while it pursues its parent company’s “future shape and size” cost-cutting program, but negative market response to this year’s U.S./ UK invasion of Iraq and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have forced CitiExpress into more drastic measures.
Manchester-based CitiExpress has evolved from the 2001 consolidation of BA subsidiaries British Regional Airlines (BRAL) and Brymon Airways, having formally opened last year to allow BA to coordinate its short-haul businesses more easily and to reduce fragmentation among partners. Today, the airline also includes
the remnants of BA Regional (the group’s former business unit for non-London based services), as well as Manx Airways (a former BRAL sibling from the Airlines
of Britain group).
