Book Review: The British Airways Trilogy by Paul Jarvis
BA's technology, network & product are constantly changing, but their brand values are forever
Not many aircraft are named after an airline staff member. British Airways’ Boeing 787 G-ZBJJ is an exception – “Paul Jarvis” is stencilled on the front. Paul Jarvis joined the London-based airline in 1966 and stayed for more than 50 years. He curated the airline’s museum and compiled three books:
1. British Airways – An Illustrated History, 2014
2. Better by Design – Shaping the British Airways Brand, 2015
3. Mapping the Airways, 2016
I say compiled rather than wrote because these are fundamentally picture books with explanatory text rather than text with accompanying images. There are probably more than 1,000 images across all three books and I don’t think any of them appear twice.
BA’s collection of posters, maps, and ephemera are pulled together to tell the airline’s story. Each book is 160 pages long. This article is my review.
1. British Airways – An Illustrated History, 2014
The ‘Illustrated History’ volume starts with an explanation of where British Airways came from. Originally there were two airlines – British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC*) for long range flights and British European Airways (BEA) offering more local services. Even earlier, there was Imperial Airways and an original (but different!) British Airways.
* According to the British sense of humour, BOAC really stands for ‘Better on a Camel’!
Mr Jarvis reckons that both forerunners had what he calls a “pioneering spirit” and this carried over to the combined entity. Apparently the 1974 merger was not easy. The two airlines had different sales systems (BOADICEA and BEACON respectively) that needed to be integrated.
Engineering was also tricky, as BOAC’s had to be maintained all over the world while BEA’s came home every night. Remember that in these days planes flew long routes with many stops. One map in ‘Mapping the Airways’ (p55) shows London to Delhi with ten stops and BOAC needed maintenance facilities at all of them.
Pioneering spirit or not, BA has always been a bit cheeky. A great pair of 1974 maps on p18 of ‘Illustrated History’ says “In 1919 a British airline had the largest system of International Air Routes” above a map showing only two points, Hounslow & Le Bourget. Right next to it is “Strange how history repeats itself” above a complex route map covering every continent.
Many of the images repay careful inspection. The 1974 route map for example shows a Penzance to Isles of Scilly route unconnected to any other. This helicopter service is still going, although no longer operated by BA.
Having addressed the founding of BA, Mr Jarvis goes back in time to the early days. There are plenty of pictures of dashing pilots with their hats at jaunty angles and sassy flappers in cloche hats. It is interesting to see interiors pictures featuring wicker chairs – weight has always been important.
Many of the posters and promos from the 1920s have surprisingly similar messages to today’s airline ads. There are pictures of people having a good time on the plane, route maps and price promos. One ad (p45) manages to combine all-three with a spot of utilisation maximisation in “Tea in the air over London on Friday and Sunday afternoons £1.10s Imperial Airways the British Airline”.
Up until at least last year and possibly still today, BA was still using the Fougasse characters shown in a 1930s poster (p46) on it’s first class menus. A chap in a top hat is being carried through the clouds on a hammock by two winged cherubs, one with an umbrella and another a tray of cake and wine. A third winged cherub carries a bag. As an image I thought it really conveys the wonder of flight in a way that is just as relevant now as it was 100 years ago. Truly nothing changes.
There is another great image on p75. Two ladies are sitting under an umbrella in a garden at Heathrow being served coffee. Honestly, the terrace in the Concorde Room felt just the same the last time I went.
After a while Mr Jarvis gets into the era of colour photography. A colourised photo from the 1950s shows a smartly dressed lady snoozing on a well reclined seat. Not quite the flat beds we know today, but not far off.
Around about the 60s the way crew are presented in advertising seems to change too. Before it was dashing pilots and smart stewards wearing white coats and bow ties. The paper dresses for lady crew introduced in 1967 (p99) are quite the difference. Mr Jarvis says these uniforms were “not liked” and so “withdrawn”.
Another source tells me that men who had a bit too much too drink would try to spill drinks over the paper dresses and see the results. No wonder they were “withdrawn”. Mr Jarvis does not mention this reason, though he does say in the next book that some “high spirited” male passengers would try to light the dresses with cigarette lighters…
The planes themselves are also an important part of the story. C-class flying boats, Whitworth Argosy bi-planes and Handley Page turboprops all feature in the early days. An Argosy is shown carrying the first airmail to India on 30-Mar-1929. A glorious cutaway shows the beds and lounges on a flying boat.
After the war the planes get a bit more shiny and sleek. The Lockheed Constellations, Vickers Vikings and Comet jetliner all look ultra-shiny. Mr Jarvis notes how BOAC as an airline and the British aircraft industry in general never really recovered from the loss of the Comet programme.
Eventually four-engined 747s arrived from America. BOAC described the entry into service of the 747 as “getting into gear for the 70s”. Meanwhile BEA received British-made three-engine tridents.
Mr Jarvis spends what at first seems surprisingly little time on Concorde. I think this was the right thing to do in this book. Concorde was a worthy experiment for British Airways and Air France, but it failed. Only a few passengers ever flew supersonic compared to the vast majority on regular subsonic planes.
Concorde gets a good few mentions and some nice pictures in the “Back to the Future” chapter. But Mr Jarvis spends much more time thinking about BA’s cabin branding.
Some of these seem a bit odd to modern eyes. BOAC’s “Monarch” first class service featured Henry VIII in the ads and BA’s “Elizabethan” offered bizarre 400 year old menus with posset and “Capon Puddynge”. This morphed into the much more sensible “Crown” first class.
Back in business class however BA were on the money from the go. A BA ad quoted on p109 says “there is something very special about belonging to a club … there’s a sense of camaraderie, the feeling of belonging, the secret delight in enjoying what others can’t”. Mr Jarvis says “’Club’ remains uniquely a British Airways concept”. I agree.
Around 60,000 passengers a week fly Club World according to my analysis (see article) so Club is hardly exclusive. But the branding makes it FEEL exclusive and that is the point.
Reaching the end of ‘Illustrated History’ seems a bit unsatisfying. A lot has changed in the ten years since Mr Jarvis published his first part of the trilogy.
Currently in service First and Club World cabins are shown clearly. What is absent is Avios.
The loyalty part of the business is now arguably the most important part of the business (see article) with BA even launching flights where every seat is paid for with points, not money (see article). If Mr Jarvis were writing today, this would surely be the final chapter.
2. Better by Design – Shaping the British Airways Brand, 2015
‘By Design’ was actually given to me personally by the team at British Airways. In 2016 and 2017 (I think! I might be a year out) I participated in their “Future Lab” customer research programme and was invited with other “Lab” participants to a day at their Waterside headquarters next to Heathrow. We got the book as a thank you at the end of the day.
‘By Design’ carries on nicely from ‘Illustrated History’. It takes the building blocks of planes, crews and network from the first volume and presents what makes British Airways British Airways. At it’s heart, ‘By Design’ is a book about branding.
The approach in ‘By Design’ is only partly chronological, while ‘Illustrated History’ proceeds start-to-finish.
Mr Jarvis explains how the brand evolved through the 70s, 80s and 90s before a side-trip into uniforms. The book concludes with remarks on branding which I think are vital for every airline:
“In the eyes of the travelling public, the British Airways brand has been shaped both by advertising and experience … a common thread has been continual improvement and innovation, along with the recognition that great journeys begin well before the aircraft takes off and continue after it lands…
Great design has been an integral part of that journey … being a leader is about creating more with less but still with style and requires emotion, warmth and a character of purpose within the limitations that an air journey inevitably brings…
This all adds up to making not just the travel experience but also the customer feel special … such attention to detail has created that emotional connection that keeps customers coming back.”
In an industry dominated by NDC, Offer & Order retailing, loyalty and a constant focus on cost management I find these words refreshing. Amadeus has no emotional bonding solution. Nothing from PROS makes air travellers feel special.
AI, machine learning, blockchain and data are all very well. But a significant proportion of air travel demand is always going to come from people who just like one airline over another. Making customers feel warm and fuzzy is good for business.
‘By Design’s’ illustrations are just as rewarding as ‘Illustrated History’s’. Some of the fares are interesting. From p8:
“India, Pakistan, Ceylon By Speedbird Landplane or Flying Boat: Calcutta, £252 return; Delhi £230 return; Karachi £216 return, Colombo £266 return”
From BA’s website today: Bengaluru £508 return, Chennai, Hyderabad & Mumbai, £515 return, Islamabad £764 return, Male £639 return, New Delhi £504 return. Come the next summer sale they will be much closer to the Calcutta & Ceylon levels.
A poster on p56 makes a very interesting statement: “North America from only £75 return … fuel surcharges as at 1 July 1974 included)”. I did not know YQ (see article) was so old!
There is plenty to catch your eye in this book. Colourful ads showing people with old-fashioned haircuts having a great time at the beach; liveries and tailfins; Super Club comfort; Club World beds; First class perks.
Mr Jarvis makes much of fully-flat beds in Club World. I was surprised that the original First seat, the first ever seat that turned into a fully-flat bed, only warrants one picture in it’s original blue/pine version and one more in it's grey/walnut version. A birds-eye plan showing the layout is also shown, but this is not much for game-changing technology.
My favourite picture in the entire trilogy is on p62. “Two classes to suit the two you’s”.
There is a picture of a chap with his right side in a suit holding a brief case and his left in flippers, trunks and holding a fishing spear. Next to the suited-guy is the caption “Club: the working class” and next to the beach-goer “Tourist: the leisure class”.
This shows an important lesson for all airlines who often think transactionally. People loyal to the brand will use your carrier for many different reasons over a lifetime. There is much to be gained in building a brand that people like. The soft product matters as a revenue generator.
For this reason ‘By Design’ reaches a much more satisfying conclusion than ’Illustrated History’. An airline’s business, network and technology are soon out of date. But an airline’s brand values are much more robust.
3. Mapping the Airways, 2016
‘Mapping’ is quite different to the first two books. Mr Jarvis uses maps for BA, BOAC, BEA and imperial Airways to ask some interesting questions about the role of maps in aviation and the wider world. While BA and it’s predecessors are the case study, the points are broader.
For example, Imperial Airways produced a glorious illustrated map covered in elephants, steamships and jungles (p26). Mr Jarvis reckons that in the 20s and 30s “the world was becoming a better known place … and maps were extensively used … to educate and inform … ‘imperial Airways invite you to see all this by air’. Who could fail to take up such an invitation?”
All the maps are worth taking time to look at. Some of them are bizarrely presented. All look a lot more interesting and colourful than today’s rather bland moving maps, shown at the end.
Readers who have also studied the work of data visualisation expert Edward Tufte will note that the most informative maps presented by Mr Jarvis follow his principle of maximising the proportion of “data ink” on a page.
The vast majority of maps show a network that is much more focused on the east rather than the Americas. These days, BA’s new route is inevitably Dullsville USA, revenue guaranteed by the City Corporation. There is no first class to east Africa or India. Dozens of destinations in Africa, Arabia, India and Asia from days of old look quite compelling. Qatar Airways today has more in common with BOAC than BA has had for a long time.
Conclusion
There is a lot to learn by studying Mr Jarvis’s trilogy. As picture books, they make an easy and pleasurable read during a break at work or before bed. I learnt a lot from them and keep picking them up again and again.
Due to the strength of the airline’s branding, I suspect that BA’s best days from a product and service perspective are ahead of them. For the same reason, coupled with their appetite for boring but profitable American routes, their most profitable days are also probably in the future.
But for those of us who like flying east, the future looks like it must be Qatar Airways. I wonder what Mr Jarvis would make of that.
Overall, a recommended read: five stars!
oliver AT ransonpricing DOT com