The Struggles In Opening A New Route To China | A Very British Airline | S1E02 | Documentary Central

british airways is one of the uk's most visible brands it sells britishness as a mark of quality some passengers are happy to part with small fortunes to fly in its first class a one-way fare is just over ten thousand dollars but in the last decade the business has faced financial crisis today more people fly easyjet than ba we all fly to the same destinations so what can we do to stand out as the airline reaches a turning point our cameras have been allowed unique access to its inner world from the top level decisions we're not as big in china as we should be so getting this right is very important to the daily challenges of its global operation 552 roads back on stand to offload a passenger who having a panic attack we've been following some of the airlines 40 000 staff do you know what the pressure is on as they work to meet exacting standards [Music] in this episode we'll reveal how they manage their massive overseas operations you don't want to be scary to your team but you know sometimes you have to be and brave the weather in new york this is quite severe we are expecting anything up to 10 to 12 inches of snow for the cabin crew it's make or break as they enter the final phase of their training is that the proper way to taste wine by making that sound [Music] and the airline opens a new route to china [Music] saturday afternoon in london's chinatown the airline's trying something different there you go sweet taste of success fortune cookies we have to be quite selective with the cookies because we've only got a limited number so ideally we'd rather give them to people who live and work in the uk as opposed to tourists they're not trying to muscle in on crispy duck and takeaways do you speak mandarin they're here to learn new staff to crew a new route to china we are recruiting manual speaking cabin crew for our new route to chengdu in china starting in september have you ever thought of becoming cabin crew no no no no can you teach me any more yes of course i in uk also teaches small kids coach speaks mandarin emerging from a difficult decade the airline's looking to the future [Music] and for any business that wants to expand china is the fastest growing market in the world [Music] there are now more than a million millionaires in china the highest concentration outside of america for an airline looking to fill its first and business class cabins it's a potential bonanza [Music] already flying to beijing hong kong and shanghai the company's chosen chengdu as its fourth destination in china [Music] airport 42 year old wyman kan is in charge of flying the flag for the new operation [Music] looks very nice it's very stylish yes it smells okay the fonts are okay the wording is okay very nice a hong kong native but educated in essex wyman is one of the airline's most experienced airport managers as you can see we're testing the fit screens as well va-88 is being displayed ba-88 being the flight from qingdu to london and 88 is an auspicious number in the chinese numbering system it signifies wealth so hopefully prosperity for british airways and for our customers [Music] wyman has a challenge on his hands in the race to compete in the chinese market the company is behind [Music] lufthansa and air france have three times the amount of seats flying to mainland china even thin air has more capacity than ba all our contractors it'll be the first time they see the aircraft and service the aircraft so things will probably be much more slower than normal with the opening of the chengdu route just weeks away he urgently needs to cut through the red tape i think there's been some misunderstandings with the way koon and nago normally fill paperwork in and the way it was expected to be filled in by chengdu okay doing business in hong kong is much more straightforward than in chengdu they don't tend to think out the box as we would do in hong kong so sometimes yes it's spelt n-o everything the airline does in the airport from cleaning to catering from check-in to baggage is wyman's responsibility with his deputy benny wong he must also check the lounges are up to the expectations of the airline's most particular passengers and he's worried that this one is not up to scratch and some of the food on display may challenge western pallets we will be sprucing up the food offering at the moment it's all very local there but have duck's tongue while the airline is looking to the future with chengdu no destination represents its past and present as keenly as new york the airline's been ferrying high flyers to the big apple since the 50s you'll meet people rather like yourself most of them are men with an interesting job to do and most of them are approaching the top of the tree useful people to get to know today new york retains the highest concentration of billionaires in the world and with london not short of super rich either the airlines route across the atlantic known as the blue ribbon is its biggest money spinner it's too short so i'll be re-tying up the company's top man at new york's jfk airport is alan ely he has his own distinctive sense of style pink is an iconic part of an allen outfit the purple's nice little dotty goes a long way i absolutely think it's vital to bring a little color into the world when i go in my wardrobe or closet as we say over here in the states usually there's something black there's something blue or there's something gray i bring the color into the world with my personality and then i add a tie for good measure allen started as cabin crew and worked his way up through the ranks in the company over 23 years i know that always dream of being pilots i always wanted to be a flight attendant or cabin crew as we call it in england i always wanted to be the person interacting with the people that are going on holiday because those people are always so happy i think i have quite a critical eye and i ask all of my staff to walk around with a critical eye we have to be looking at everything that the customer's going to see and experience and also everything that our staff are going to experience when they're in their work environment [Music] british airways terminal 7 at jfk is special it's the only u.s terminal run by a non-american airline with the eyes of the business very much on him allen's managerial style is as fastidious as his suits you'll see me walking along and doing things like this and that is literally to just get the scuffs off the floor because when you then step into the environment it looks nicer you'll see me do that and don't think it's strange i feel like i'm responsible for it and if things are not as they should be i feel personally disappointed sorry and it's not they're not coming off so i have to call our maintenance providers and they'll come up and buff the floor every little detail counts in an operation so valuable to the company [Music] allen's pride and joy is the concord room terminal 7's most exclusive lounge entries reserved for those willing to pay the price of a small car to fly first class a standard one-way fare from new york to london is just over ten thousand dollars our customer wants to walk into an area that feels like a sanctuary and doesn't feel like an airport we have the whiskey bar we have the vodka bar and then my personal favorite of course is the champagne bar if i was coming in here and making my choice i think tonight i'd be going for the pink champagne the lauren perrier [Music] of course we have tenderloin duck breast sea bass a vegetarian option wild mushroom risotto which is absolutely delicious i had that last week what we ensure is that everything is made with fresh ingredients customers want something fresh simple tasty the only thing missing from the concord room is concord if you cast your mind back a couple of decades and the glamorous era of flank super supersonic concorde that would be parked right there so the customers would be looking out onto the aircraft step around the corner and board it directly from the lounge as the supersonic plane was only operated by air france and ba concorde offered a competitive advantage being part of the concord fleet generates a real sense of enthusiasm amongst the crew the highest training standards and keen competition make them intensely proud of their professionalism it gave the company a huge feeling of superiority which was underlined throughout training at the airline's base in crane bank maggie what do you think your main learning point was from that session i imagine it's very important to know one's individual role and the role of one's colleagues in order to achieve the continuity of service but at the beginning of the new century the era of supersonic travel came to an end air france had a disastrous crash and 911 caused such a decline in the airline industry that concord became uneconomic to operate [Music] but the airline's vision of service is still taught at crane bank just outside heathrow these cabin crew recruits are in the fifth week of a six-week course selected from thousands of hopefuls they've made it through the intensive safety and medical training what i normally do is make sure that i've got the long bit just here on my in my right hand now they're getting ready for a new test customer service [Music] alice kennedy joined because of her love of planes i've always been an absolutely huge playing geek um so this has just been always like my dream job for jody paris it was the sense of adventure i want to see the world and what a better way to do it working for british airways but to achieve their dreams they have to prove that they can serve the airline's most lucrative customers in its business class known as club world we do have very important customers in club world so if a customer asks you for something just do it straight away that will go a long way because it shows to them that you actually listened and then you you care about them and that expectation earning relatively low wages few of the recruits would normally travel in such comfort i haven't actually flown in club world but my sister and brother-in-law have and love it when i think club world i think premium i think luxury like jody said i just think it's it sounds posh and you get a lot more not just on the plane but obviously before in the lounges and things like that but it's vital they learn how to communicate with this kind of customer you might find sometimes some resistance from customers because they're not they're generally not used to be told what to do and then suddenly they get onboard an aeroplane and we tell them that they can't smoke they can't use the mobile phones they need to fasten the seat belt they need to put the seat upright so it is very important how we we gauge that conversation and the the tone that we use as well as the face of the airline cabin crew have to meet expectations [Music] discipline is key i'm going to take you upstairs to my office i just need to have a quick chat with you all right during training any failure to meet standards from the wrong kind of makeup to lateness receives what's called a snapshot warning i understand your frustration this morning we are well aware that there is an incident on the m25 this morning there was a lorry that was on fire so we have got quite a few people that are running late because you were late we are still going to give you a snapshot right because punctuality is key to british airways if a recruit accrues four snapshots they're out closely under scrutiny is jody yeah i'm in trouble i've got three snapshots having done well in some of the medical training she's finding this part of the course more difficult i've been focused throughout this whole course yeah there has been like a few tiny hiccups but not major behaviour problems you know like i'm a good guy i'm not i'm not a bad person with graduation only 10 days away jody can't afford to put a foot wrong or they go into a bit more detail about the quality of the food today trainer leslie grant will be introducing the trainees to the airline's version of fine dining or the taste of the meat how it's actually going to taste what i'm what i'm saying is i'm not expecting you to walk down the aisle and have you know this is your herefordshire beef this is not just food it's club world food no but i am expecting you the expectation is there for you to be able to describe that food to our customers effectively recruits need to know what's on the menu where it's from and how to pronounce it brioche is nice where are you like chocolate chips and bread right don't pronounce it it's a chilled rectangular mousse based dish it can be served as sweet or savoury so it's not cheese no what is cornfed chicken organic basically it's a chicken that's been fed corn [Laughter] at the airline not all training happens in the classroom 24 year old law graduate tom cannell is heading to a special posting i'm off to the big apple for a year in new york tom's being groomed as the next generation of manager doesn't really go with his shirt but hey and he's on his way to jfk to learn from the best there you go va cabin crew the company's massive they give you every opportunity to succeed i don't know if i'll be the next willie walsh but one day you never know but even graduate trainees sometimes need a little help it's the folding up that uh i'm not very good at especially with shirts so i guess mum will have to help me come on mother please can you fall down please and jack's probably nicked a few as well jack's my brother by the way on his way to his new job tom is flying on one of the company's most elite services london city airport to jfk it's just saying quiet it's never easy is it it's never easy with concorde pensioned off to airplane museums this a318 has taken over its flight number and call sign speedbird001 it flies at half the speed but it's as close to a private jet as the airline can manage and boasts only 32 seats [Music] a return ticket on this flight will cost upwards of three thousand pounds and that means a rack of lamb to rival tom's mother's roast there's all the money these these people are paying to just fly to new york uh it's incredible it's the sort of money i dream of i went shopping with my parents before i come and i've spent i spent about 500 pounds or so and um that emptied my bank banners around 25 million passengers arrive at jfk every year its latest arrival is about to meet his new boss good morning sir how are you welcome nice to see you good to see you tom very well thank you when the customers come in the lounges are right here with the exception the concord room will go up i'll just show you alan will be taking tom under his wing as he shows him how to run an airport good morning morning ladies good morning how are you we'll wait a couple more moments just in case anybody else is going to join but in the meantime i would like to introduce tom cannell tom's biggest challenge will be working with alan's 500 strong team many have several decades more experienced than him so we finally got the approval from the port authority to replace the two escalators going from the departures level down to the arrivals level don't try and walk onto jetbridge number four because it isn't there the door has to be closed for the jet bridge throughout to be operated allen's first lesson for tom is how to handle a room full of new yorkers who are not shy with their opinions the first class in the business class baggage i always hear the first class passenger say oh i'm expedited through immigration but now i have to wait for this bag yes you're absolutely correct those counts that are designated first class should be the first hands-off followed by the business class cows we get the brunt of it i was told off royally the other day by business class passenger they think they're standing there too long and they do not like it and running back and forth first in business class trying to get them to come with you and some of them hesitate because they don't know where you're taking them you know your point is not only well taken it is something that we are absolutely aware that we need to improve significantly on it takes the right kind of person to have the confidence to be able to guide one of those customers around you know they guide a company with 20 000 employees and then one of our team has to guide them around and to an area that they're not familiar with thank you thank you thanks guys i've been in the states now for 15 years it doesn't really matter how challenging things are i'm always going to be open and honest it's my style and i think that's what's brought me taken me through british airways for the last 23 years and brought me to this position and people get what they see i'm very very honest i'm very open and i like to engage in people people are fascinating just outside london is the company's headquarters at waterside [Music] airline boss willie walsh is meeting with chinese bankers once the signing is done i was going to hand the aircraft model to mr walsh he's on a mission to strengthen ties with china as the business eyes expansion it's critical for british airways china is the second biggest economy in the world i think in terms of opportunity it's limitless to be honest with you [Music] already behind the competition willie knows how critical it is to pull off chengdu we're not as big in china as we should be so getting this right for british airways is very important [Music] with so much at stake the airline's determined to put the right face on things [Music] pull forward you also got to go down yeah so in a heathrow hangar the boeing triple seven that's due to make the first flight to chengdu is receiving a special paint job [Music] so this place is called chando chengdu can do the plane will be flying to china painted as the official mascot of chengdu the panda yeah five thousand miles away in a chengdu shopping center and attempts being made to combine a sense of the airline's britishness with some local flavors all mixed up in a dance spectacular [Music] rehearsals choreographer jin tarnan is struggling slightly to try and realize her vision [Music] if her dreams are realized the end result should be ranks of panda mascots dressed as just about anything that might be considered british from harry potter to premiership footballers and inevitably the royal family [Applause] [Music] to really deliver the cell the airlines also drafted in its own brand ambassadors pilots and cabin crew who've swapped a day of flying for smiling [Music] the hope is the event will be so eye-catching the chengdu public will be inspired to take pictures of the extravaganza an add to the events official post on china's version of twitter weibo with its 700 million users at home in the uk the airline's been around for years but in china it's just another western brand trying to stand out yeah we're really well quite happy with that i think it all pulled off quite well everything enjoy around here good crowd good turnout so yeah it was really good there's a lot of pandas about that a lot of pandas [Applause] at his home in hong kong the company's airport manager for china wyman is juggling setting up the new route to chengdu with keeping the existing operation running smoothly hong kong is the airline's foothold in china it's part of the colonial furniture a legacy of empire [Music] it's been flying here for as long as there's been intercontinental air travel we're just going to see the cabin cleaning activities it's wyman's job to match british expectations with chengdu staff who've limited experience of international airline standards planes are actually quite filthy 400 people can find the tube they've had two meals it's not a pleasant site but once we turn this aircraft around once it's all cleaned it's spotless chengdu they don't have as many international flights as hong kong does so they're not so experienced with dealing with long-haul aircraft and their teams are not as big as what we'd like that's why we have some of our people going to chengdu to support the uh kevin cleaning teams there as well as his clean-up operation wyman's also got a tasting for the menu for the chengdu route it's being devised by chef gwendel ammon on the far end over there we'll have first class club world and world traveler we develop three rotation of food so on any one flight there will be probably more than 85 dishes chengdu is the capital of szechuan province with a cuisine famed for mouth numbing pepper pig intestines and duck's blood it's quite spicy yeah there's a having been raised partly in china and partly in essex wyman knows the tastes of both i haven't found a favorite chatran dish yet because i find them too hot it's probably from my time in the uk my personal taste would be i would prefer bangers and mash there's a lot of ginger flavor to this and this is just a little hint of a green chili oil do you think a chinese customer would enjoy that i think to them the taste would take some getting used to because of the aniseed yeah it seems to me that we kind of struck the right balance between having a western and a chinese choice let's hope they can replicate this back in qingdu in china things are not always as consistent as in hong kong with only two weeks left before the launch of chengdu wyman is feeling the pressure you don't want to be scary to your team but you know sometimes you have to be i think every manager has to have a bit of a scary streak around him to get things moving [Music] for an airport manager handling stress is part of the job [Music] sometimes i have sleepless nights trying to cover all the angles [Music] it's part of my character as well to show responsibility it's all part of the job and i wouldn't be doing my job correctly if i'd say i don't care [Music] in new york trainee airport manager tom is trying to dress the part well i haven't seen allen's dress sense i've got a lot to live up to so i'm trying my best there he's a very dapper looking guy and dresses very smartly so i'll try my best but this is always a challenge to get the toddler right take two but the tie is the least of tom's problems with jfk suffering one of its worst winters on record today's not going to be an easy ride what i like to do is just keep updated with the national weather service and see what they're forecasting as we go into the evening rain and sleet before 10 blustery 22 mile an hour winds and another three to five inches of snow [Music] this is quite severe we need to make sure that we're able to bring our aircraft in safely offload bags cargo the customers safely and we have done some tactical delaying of services and some tactical cancellations [Music] i have four flights that i've taken out of the program today they won't come in from london and they will not depart from kennedy [Music] running the operation at terminal 7 means alan has to keep track of all possible diversions to his planes and the captain was just thinking about diverting um and he gave jante a heads-up there's really nothing um available to him until he goes down into plo probably florida and that does not make sense to divert into orlando or miami which for the east currently are the diversion points if they do i would they'll either get stuck there there will be a fuel and go because there are no hotel rooms available for the customers or even the crew with flights cancelled and delays due it means passengers will be looking to the team for solutions with the pressure on tom needs to prove he can take charge on a challenging day like today it is critical for tom to engage the experts your success is based on engaging the people that have been through this numerous times before when asking for their support they will guide you assist you and help you succeed the only issues we may have is subject to gate space weather and what runways they're landing on it may take an extra time coming after the gate so the departures might be just a little later than we predict anything else no tom customers are going to come in a little bit anxious a little bit worried to know whether their flights are going to depart or not just reassure them share information with them the big smiles the big welcome uniform standards obviously just uh make sure you're looking tip-top i love that expression what movie is that from it's always a challenge to get the respect of people that a lot of the times double my age and i'm managing people that are my mom and dad's age no no thank you for doing that you're doing a good job do you mind just letting people know about the duty free which can be challenging at times to get that respect everyone that works here all the staff they've been through thick and thin oh really no i didn't hear it well one area i need to improve on that is toughening up a little bit um i i probably sometimes am too nice you are going to have to be tough here absolutely and you're going to have to be resilient there are going to be times when you're going to have to take a probably tougher stance than you are comfortable with all that's natural to you know to the way that you deal and interact with people while alan is trying to toughen tom up at waterside the mood is lightning in cabin crew training it's time for a drink [Music] trainer nadine phelan is introducing them to the wine list the airline's secret weapon when it comes to giving a sense of class so our session this afternoon is our premium service wine master class it can be overwhelming for some of our delegates they may not have that much experience tasting wine and perhaps it's not a drink of their choice the course is testing all the senses as the recruits try to guess the differences between the various kinds look at the color tell me what color do you think this is so that should already start to narrow down what great variety you think it is alice is enjoying getting her nose stuck in cherry the more you smell the flavors but 20 year old jodie's finding the etiquette confusing is that the proper way to taste wine by making that sound joji there is no proper taste however both did it i'm interested in it but not the drinking side it would be nice to you know be able to recommend wines to customers and be able to say like um like this wine would complement this food and like learn about dessert wines things like that but wine tasting and drinking wine is not familiar i want you to try and smell the bouquet of the wine so try and keep the glass very still anything else jody's not the only one finding the wine a bit overwhelming well i'm a bit weird and i drink red wine diet coke try it don't know that's so weird it is beautiful so head your bets ladies and gents what do we think new world you think it's a merlot that's the sauvignon i think but it's quite sharp that it is actually a new world cabernet sauvignon [Applause] [Music] it must have been it's the evening rush at jfk and the delays caused by the snow are biting do you need a hand are you okay have a nice slide tom has to keep people moving and bring calm to a potentially chaotic situation yeah john is there how come it says balling on there does it always do that despite the severity of the cold weather the ground staff outside take it in their stride to do everything possible to prevent further delays and stop the situation for tom's passengers inside getting more heated weather conditions determine how long the plane can sit after it's been de-iced and anti-iced and still be safe to leave ladies and gentlemen you can use all gates of fast track work anyone from fast track business first are you yeah absolutely so have a nice spot sir thank you [Music] yes sir just to confirm that uh i've inspected your uh aircraft after the icing and everything is satisfactory dealing with the snow may be new to tom but for the new yorkers it's all part of the job we get you know six or seven inches of snow nobody blinks an eye you know it's just everybody keeps going heathrow everything kind of grinds down to a stop whatever the weather no incident is too big or small to escape allen's attention miguel this is alan i'm at the entrance of for the duty-free shop just at the top of the escalators and somebody's spilled potato chips on the floor thank you so much it comes all the way out jcm will be coming as well so if you can get the worst that'd be really appreciated thank you thanks a lot have a good evening as the night wears on tom turns to the experience of the terminals veterans like linda strang do you mind just doing a quick announcement for the 182 just to keep people up to date oh i did i said midnight is that the most up-to-date yeah okay yeah if you could with regards to connections in london you know the job ladies and gentlemen we do apologize but due to late arrival of the inbound aircraft our new departure time is approximately midnight the aircraft is here 18 years in reservation sitting killed my back 10 and a half years out here has done my my legs and my feet in and the whole 28 and a half years together is done there'll be nothing left they'll just toss me out when when it's all over but uh i feel like the time has been well spent i enjoy it i like my job i like what i do i like dealing with people and i think that's the challenge here when you're very time constricted and you've only got them there for you know 10 15 seconds luckily i talk fast and you have a little bit of a play with them a little bit of give and take the ones that don't want to you just let them go but most people really they want to be dealt with as an individual and jfk has no shortage of characters passing through weirdness comes and goes every day you can't stop it either the passenger wants to be helped or they're just weird excuse me one second please ticketing joanne over the last 18 years veteran joanne brown has had to deal with just about everything tonight it's the turn of mr and mrs pierce who've missed their connection lovely girl like you and i'm way over there who is this lady to you it's my wife watch it then watch it watch it none of that right sandra you got it all right so now let's see so we're going for a wedding and we're meeting my sister and her husband what day is the wedding the wedding thank god isn't right away hello this is joanne from british here with ticketing at jfk i have two passengers here they've missed their connections and i need them to be booked for joanne the benefit of experience is knowing the right calls to make this woman is fantastic i mean you can't even imagine what she has done when you arrive tomorrow just tell them your bags will be downstairs just show them the person is in trouble you ease them first ease their minds at first so you can let them know that you basically are here to help them so once they know that they kind of relax when they realize that you're just there to help them they're kind of easy going and they'll smile anyway and then when you absolutely do help them sugar on top [Music] that's lovely have a very good trip sir at heathrow's terminal five the first passengers to fly direct from london to chengdu are checking in hello sir how are you today good thank you good that's lovely thank you very much mr brown just take yourself down the escalator do take a look at the front of the aircraft sir because it has a panda's face yeah that's lovely thank you joining the flight will be airline boss willie walsh [Music] with the chinese tourist market worth millions for the uk it's vital that plans go smoothly [Music] the 5 000 mile flight will take 11 hours and will run three times a week between london and chengdu at the other end chengdu is waiting to greet the panda plane with a characteristic layer of smok this is the inaugural flight parking bay we've been assigned 104. there's only two parking bays at this airport that can accommodate wide-bodied aircraft and this is one of them wyman and his deputy benny are keen to make sure that absolutely nothing goes wrong with the aircraft's arrival on the plane their boss willie is accompanied by a pack of journalists implications attending the red carpet event are the brand ambassadors immaculately turned out and smiling of course and the obligatory pandas are also being lined up so one pound or two panda will play two panda one i think it's the best yeah but the problem is we've got two is it one panda two pound of two uh panda one it would work better with one on either end when the plane arrives it has to turn around in two hours to fly its first load of chengdu tourists to london but wyman's got a problem the internet's faulty so check-in's not working currently the systems are down trying to resolve it we may need to call london we can't get access to our checking system then obviously it's not a good time to have your systems outage when the fight's two hours away with his boss about to fly in it's the last thing wyman needs [Music] three days from graduation it's the customer service exam for the cabin crew recruits your hat and waste are in the car okay can you can you go and get them today they'll be tested on all they've learned about food and drink over the last two weeks go back to the galley every time and just cross it off and then say is everyone happy what are we doing next trainer sai jones will be examining the group with alice sophie and nikita just about to go in and do a club europe service for us so john is your child you've ordered a child meal it's not being catered so you're not happy about this the rest of the group are acting as customers for them and then we've got a nervous flyer amy you're going to be nervous and throw a few snags in there and again it's just to see have they got what it takes to be british airways cabin crew do they understand club europe service how do they talk to our customers are they using premium language are they presenting our drinks in an appropriate way crikey what is that that's a chardonnay this is really about have they listened for the last couple of weeks and take on board everything we've said hello one of the teams playing the role of a blind passenger hi there mrs taylor it's alice and sophie here can we offer you anything to drink today uh yes please i would love to have a day called okay i'm just gonna put the coke in the two o'clock position there okay thanks you're welcome with so much riding on it alice is nervous honestly we thought it was a disaster so we are slightly anxious now as to what is coming next um and what the outcome will be in another room the trainers assess the performance she looks apart in the cabin she had a perfect premium language i thought yeah i thought she was really good with the customers what i would like alice to work on is some of her terminology she said to the customer would you like a diet coke or a full fat coke oops so where i see alice i would probably put down as developing not for the way she looks but again for the terminology she's using in the cabin alice has passed the test yes but jody has been summoned to an important meeting [Music] jody was asked on four occasions to reapply lipstick [Music] so if a customer had seen jd looking the way she was presenting herself it doesn't come across as if she's taking her care in her appearance and if she's not taking care of an appearance which is just a basic standard then where are we going to be when we're on board the aircraft i've been trying so hard if the instruction was clear i would have put it on before i left the classroom it's not so much about the uniform it's more looking at the bigger picture of things is jody ready to go online yet is she ready to be actually with our customers it's over three days to go we do pride ourselves on our standards and we know our customers come to expect a lot from us at british airways so we don't want to come across as being harsh we don't want to come across as being strict we just want to maintain those standards that we come to expect from all of our colleagues unfortunately on this occasion jody hasn't met the criteria required for british air's cabin crew almost there all right look after yourself five and a half weeks after she arrived as a trainee and without returning to the classroom jody's departing her dreams for now on hold [Music] it's a new morning at jfk and the snow seems to be holding off it's welcome news for alan thanks a lot anita i'll see you soon see you at noon bye we expect to be able to operate all of our services this evening and hopefully on schedule [Music] having earned his stripes tom's being left to handle the operation this evening i am indeed how's it going yeah yeah great just after six o'clock and now we're just going to go through round check-in premium area just check on that and then go through the one two okay and the one one two we've got a passenger offload yeah yeah it seems to have gone through pretty well yeah it's running smoothly okay hopefully it stays that way it will it will trust me it will you've got linda here you've got everybody else yeah exactly would you like to come through okay just we're just going to bring fast track for all right sorry about the way if you're traveling in world traveler it's this queue okay alan's very knowledgeable he's been in the job a long time always look the part one thing he's definitely taught me is you set down the rules from the start and you set down what your expectations are from staff so at the end of the day they know where the line is and they know not to cross a line and they know that i'm passionate about customer service and alan is passionate about customer service so we share that i try anyway i'm not as dapper as alan i always say that i give it give it a go because of the previous night's cancellations there are more passengers tonight than originally expected good good pleasure tom has to explain to some customers that the seats they booked aren't available unfortunately because the loads are busy in the in the class that you're in what they have to do is sometimes don't grow people i'm sure that's already been explained to you if i were you there's snow forecast in the next hour or so it could disrupt i'd i'd take that option really annoying thing is that my best friend was the skipper on the flight oh really oh no thank you very much a lot of the passengers are stressed there's all the time constraints you're just dealing with so much and often you have to deal with it very quickly maybe there are people out there that want easy jobs that they can coast through i never did i don't have kids i don't want kids this is my baby okay i've got a gentleman here yes he says that he was promised a receipt of our child class okay that is uh unlucky yeah um not ideal is it this gentleman here yeah yeah what i'll do hi sir how are you doing very sorry for the inconvenience we'll make sure we're looked after okay cheers it may be a stressful business but tom seems to be getting into the swing of it good job joe davey apm to back room just wanted to say good job on the 172 getting those bags on thanks for that but all in all that was a very smooth boarding team did a great job as always they're smiling welcome customers which is what we want and um customers look please so at the end of the day it was a good job done i can't do it [Music] the panda plane has arrived in chengdu the new route has taken 10 months to plan and more than 100 people to pull it off [Music] for willy it's a grand entrance in china while his boss poses for the cameras wyman is focused on the turn round [Music] as the press pack moves on and with his internet problems over it's time for wyman and his new team to ready the plane for its chengdu passengers cleaners are on catering's coming on now and this is where the real work starts it's just a sense of relief to see the aircraft land willie come off and he looked happy so you know if he's happy we're all happy you look about 10 years younger than you did about half an hour ago yeah fish build up you see and there's the climax and there's the anti-climax but the festivities aren't over yet ladies and gentlemen good evening and thank you for joining us tonight there's time for a gala dinner to woo the city's dignitaries with every british cliche in the book when you look at ba britishness is a very important part of its dna we are a british company we espouse british traditions promote britishness and uh you know the chinese people are loving it [Music] i've never seen a chinese person blow about behind so you always learn something new each day sadly for wyman the only thing not british is the food i was hoping for a bit of lesson i've had too much sichuan food these two weeks what were you wanting fish and chips yeah pine chips not kfc [Music] at the airline's headquarters the remaining cabin crew recruits have something to celebrate welcome to british airways mix fleet cabin crew and congratulations for completing your six-week initial trip you ready look at the cameras this whole course has been quite a challenge for me just with everything else it honestly really has been such an achievement but the sense of pressure won't necessarily stop here there's so many people that want this job there's so many people this is their you know their dream so i don't think i'd be looking over my shoulder but i certainly won't be like i was at other airlines i can't be able to put my donut in so it'll be a ponytail today it's not gonna happen just i'm just so relieved there are times on the course where you think are we ever going to get to the end i can't believe it's all done so yeah it's just looking forward to the future now [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] two days later analysis plane spotting dreams have become a professional reality her first flight as cabin crew is to vienna [Music] at heathrow as one flight leaves another arrives at terminal 5 a load of chengdu tourists have just landed [Music] they're the end result of all of wyman's hard work a lot of challenges along the way but we've managed to overcome it those challenges and uh we've come out quite very well i would say i was schooled in the school of hard knocks [Music] a hello hello there by emergency i think that every business needs to be flexible enough to change to remain competitive to remain profitable and if that means switching your focus from one city to the next one area to the next i think you have to be nimble to help [Music] is the start of a new era for british airways 10 years from now i'll be very disappointed if va you know hasn't opened at least another four or five maybe even six cities in china in london the chengdu tourists stop for a meal in chinatown in the coming years part of bas and the uk's growth will depend on their appetite for all things british [Music] next time the challenges are being based at the world's most congested airport actually sir it's not all right because the flight's closed for checking apparently there's a firearm inside this bag an unexpected find in baggage causes problems all the delays cost the company money and the airline trains its first new cadet pilots for a decade the fall at the last hurdle would be a nightmare and it would be sort of career over [Music] you

Channel: Documentary Central

Views: 109,669

Keywords: Doco, Documentaries, Documentary, Episode, Movie, Movies, Online, Series, TV, london heathrow, airport, england, uk, aviation, storm corrie, aborted landing, close call, skilled pilots, tense, hair raising, big jet tv, british airways, british airways first class, british airways review, first class, economy, economy class, ba first class, first class review, airplane, flight report, cabin crew, club world, british airways business class, ba, oneworld, inflight video, trip report

Id: ym_xMnwPe9o

Length: 59min 2sec (3542 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 17 2022