“Less of the ex-pilot,” he grins, pointing out that as well as being chief executive of both British Airways’ new Gatwick subsidiary Euroflyer and its Cityflyer operation at London City airport, he is also an Airbus captain.
Stoddart returned to the cockpit in January following the pandemic and flies on the days when not running two airlines. “You’ll occasionally find me in the cockpit at Gatwick,” he says – it’s where he started his flying career 23 years ago and where, 12 months ago, he was “delighted” to bring back BA’s short-haul brand.
Euroflyer was born when BA seized an opportunity during the pandemic. It halted short-haul flying at Gatwick and threatened not to reinstate it unless under a cost-cutting subsidiary that would allow it to compete with the likes of easyJet and other no-frills brands.
A year on and Stoddart believes his task is progressing nicely. “[Bringing down] costs has definitely been one of the success stories,” he says. “We’ve achieved that in a very challenging environment in terms of inflation. The first thing was aircraft utilisation, taking out the domestic flights and focusing on point-to-point to get more hours’ flying.
“We stretched the schedules more into the shoulders of the summer season. By lowering our cost base and price point, it makes us more competitive in winter so we can reduce some of the seasonality prevalent at airports like Gatwick. Having a dedicated management team, we can be razor-sharp. So far, we’ve managed to hit all our expectations.”
One way of reducing costs is to fly bigger aircraft. Euroflyer will operate 19 aircraft this summer, a mix of Airbus A320s and larger A321s, which seats up to 218. Five of the fleet will be A321s, rising to nine at the end of the summer.
“We will get to 21 aircraft by the end of the year and 24 by next summer,” he says. At its peak, BA mainline operated 36 short-haul aircraft from Gatwick, with 32 pre-pandemic. Historically, BA was 20-25% of Gatwick’s flights pre-Covid, including long-haul. “The aspiration is to have 28-30 aircraft over the next five years. Our market share will grow.”
New routes this summer will include Montpellier, to Stoddart’s immense pleasure. “When I started with BA in 2000 as a first officer, it was my first route from Gatwick, but it was stopped six months after I arrived,” he recalls.
Other additions are Salzburg, Corfu – which Stoddart believes is a Gatwick first for BA – Mykonos and, from December, Innsbruck. Innsbruck, a wintersports gateway surrounded by mountains, requires a higher level of pilot training which, he said, would have meant added complications for the start-up in its first year.
Another destination requiring specific training is Madeira’s Funchal, which would fit BA’s customer profile nicely. “Funchal is an ongoing debate," says Stoddart when pressed on when it will take off.
Euroflyer, though, is unlikely to revive BA’s Gatwick domestic services soon. The sole domestic route at Gatwick, to Glasgow, is a mainline operation aimed at transfer passengers. “Whether that continues to be mainline is a conversation we will have in due course," Stoddart says.
When he does want to add new routes, Stoddart has a ready supply of slots thanks to BA parent company IAG. Among IAG’s stable of airlines is Spain’s Vueling, which is keeping those slots warm until Stoddart needs them. “They have been leased and will be returned to Euroflyer in due course," he continues. "I anticipate within five years. It aligns with ambitions to go back to 28-30 aircraft."
Euroflyer has a very different passenger profile to Cityflyer – so what lessons did he learn from Cityflyer? “Operating as a subsidiary within a large airline group requires specific skills; there are times when you want to be aligned to the parent and times you want to be different. It’s absolutely crucial we take the best bits of BA while bringing the energy and dynamism of a small company.”
‘The best job at BA’
Unlike easyJet, BA’s tour operation is not trade-friendly, but Stoddart insists Euroflyer is working “a lot more closely” with the leisure trade. “We have our own sales team – our ability to develop closer relationships with the trade is helped by having that smaller management team. That’s a key strategy; we have a chief commercial officer tasked with finding opportunities. It’s something we want to learn more about.”
BA’s Gatwick brand may have a low-cost approach, but is still differentiated in consumers’ eyes, Stoddart stresses. The bottle of water and snack plus more generous hand luggage allowance than easyJet are one thing, but it is the BA brand people will pay for, he believes.
“Price is always going to be important in this market, and making sure we offer great value is key," he says. "But we also have the business class product, the loyalty programme. There’s something about the BA service people will pay extra for; it doesn’t feel quite as chaotic onboard, we offer the ability to check in with an actual person and make sure the flows at the gate are as seamless as can be.”
