Simon Daly - British Airways manager
MY FATHER worked with Aer Lingus so I always wanted to work for an airline. I started out as a cabin steward with Ryanair, back in 1985. At the time there was me and 11 women and it was great fun.
I joined British Airways 12 years ago as a business account manager and was made country manager for Ireland a year later.
I’ve a team of five and we’re based in Malahide which is a terrific place to work. We moved from an office in Dublin seven years ago. All of us live in the area so, not only did the company save a load of money by moving, but we all got back an hour-and-a-half a day in time.
Because I’ve a home office I’ll check e-mails at around 8am before heading in to work for 9am.
The first thing I’ll do each day is look at our booking activity for the previous day to check for trends. Our system shows us very quickly how we are doing and, while you can’t judge a pattern in a day, over a week a picture will emerge.
We had revenues of €65 million last year, up 10 per cent on 2009. Most of that is attributable to business travel. Irish exporters are flying round the world every day and bringing home business.
We do our own pricing here and we changed our fare structures last year to make them cheaper and more flexible and that has paid off. Passenger numbers grew by 6.4 per cent last year.
We sell directly but travel agents are hugely important to us too, so I’ll spend some part of each day talking with them or with travel partners, such as Aer Lingus. If you book a BA flight long haul via London, it’s Aer Lingus that brings you to London.
Lunch is a sandwich at the desk while the five of us do The Irish Timescrossword. Unfortunately, the others always get it finished first and I've been caught texting for answers once or twice, but it's good fun.
In the afternoon I might be out visiting our corporate partners – large firms which have accounts with us. We also have a strong group travel business so part of our day will involve looking after them.
Because of our amalgamation with Iberia there is a lot going on. We’re not changing the BA or Iberia brands but being able to use hubs like Madrid will open up all sorts of new options for South American travel to the Irish market which I’m very excited about.
I know Aer Lingus was always the national carrier but, to be honest, in long haul terms it only flies to the US. I’m often told by our Irish passengers doing business in far flung places from India to Nigeria, places where there’s no shamrock to be seen, that when they see the BA tail fin at the airport, that’s when they know they’re home.
- Simon Daly is Ireland country manager for British Airways
- In conversation with Sandra O'Connell