Business Continuity and Crisis Management

Name: University: Course: Tutor: Date: British Air ways use of its Business Continuity Plan during the Icelandic April 2010 volcanic eruption Background information about the organisation The British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom it has its base at the Waterside where it is also headquartered, waterside is near its main hub at the London Heathrow Airport. British Airways operates its second hub at the Gatwick Airport and it has a third hub, served through one of its fully owned subsidiary, British Airways CityFlyer, at the London City Airport. The British Airways is one of the largest airlines in the United Kingdom based on the fleet size, international flights and the international destinations. This is a full service global airline; the airline flies to and from the centrally located airports and offers numerous flights around the world. Background information about the crisis The Icelandic April 2010 volcanic eruption had great impacts on the climatic conditions in Europe, it involved physical destructions to property around Iceland but the air disruption was widespread, a scenario which led to disruption in the air travel, this led to the search for the alternate means which required the remote work capabilities and the modifications to the logistics. It affected many businesses because most of them do not have the plans for the disruptions which are caused by the volcanic ash eruptions. Lamb (1995) explained that the data compiled from the geologists and the weather forecasting stations show that globally almost 20 or more volcanoes are active at any given time. According to the vulcanological standards, the Icelandic (Eyjafjallajokull) volcano eruption was of a comparatively smaller scale. It has been noted that the increasing globalization and the interconnection has the implications that the business operations will be at the risk of disruptions caused by the volcanic and other related hazards frequently, although there has been no official predictions citing the increase in the frequency of occurrence of the volcanic eruptions. The impacts caused the volcanic ash cloud and its duration are not predictable, the Icelandic event in the in 2010 was surrounded by many circumstances which included a combination of vulcanology, the geographic location, the presence of the glacier above the volcano and winds which brought the worst scenario which saw the air traffic in the region shut down for some time. Sometimes even the worse scenario can be caused especially when the eruption of a volcano triggers the eruption of other volcanoes that are nearby as was in the past case 2000 years ago when the smaller Eyjallajokull volcano erupted which caused the Katla volcano to also erupt just shortly after. During the above event when the Icelandic glacier covered Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted, it spewed the volcanic ash into the atmosphere, as a result the local response was urgent and frightening, the people in the surroundings had less than a half an hour to vacate the place. The air traffic across Scandinavia, western parts of Europe and the united kingdom came to a standstill for several days, an event which was recorded as the largest-ever interruption to the global air travel. This was amazing since the volcano had been dormant from 1821. Key business continuity issues which they faced The eruption of the volcanic Mountain of Eyjallajokull led to disruption of all the operation s in the British airline, the European’s airs space was immediately closed, as a result thousands of the flights were grounded, and approximately two millions of the passengers were stranded worldwide due to the cancellation of their flights to Europe. This implies that the air travel management should always be prepared for such incidences by establishing of the relevant plans which can help to counter the effects of such interruptions since they can occur from time to time. It is important for the management to create awareness of the effects of such like incidences and be prepared to effectively handle them through the use of the business continuity plan, proper information management and ensure the alleviation of the inconveniences and the difficulties that these disruptions causes to the passengers especially by the provision of the creature comforts to the stranded passengers. Economically, this incident caused a lot of damage, the International Air Transport Association estimates showed that there were massive losses incurred by the airline industry, and this is approximated to be around US$ 200 daily loss resulting from the flight cancellations. These effects were reflected worldwide with scores of passengers being stranded in the airports. The chaotic and frustrating situations which arose as a result of the eruption of this mountain had great impacts on the score s of the passengers who were stranded, this shows the need for the airports and airlines to put up the contingency plans to help deal with similar cases that may occur unexpectedly due to the weather changes as a result of snow falls, the typhoons, fog and the torrential rains which results in the cancellations of many flights. How the British Airways dealt with the above issues Creation of awareness All the levels of management especially the stakeholders of the airports and airlines should be aware of the possibility for the disruptions occurring anytime. This helps the management to deal with such kind f crises by appreciating the challenges and anticipate the courses of action to be taken in order to address the effects which are caused by the disruptions to the normal schedule. At such like times, the support from the stakeholders is necessary to enable the managers to and the minor staff to remedy the situation by providing maximum assistance to the stranded passengers. Use of its Business continuity plan Application of the business continuity plans helps the airports and the airlines to effectively deal with such situations, the Business Continuity plan helps to anticipate such situations by putting in place the key and contingency actions, it also assigns the roles and responsibilities of the relevant agencies and the individuals. In case of the disruptions, the officers can refer to the Business continuity Plan for guidance on proper actions to be undertaken, the Business continuity Plan acts as the guide for the managing the situations on the ground especially if a personnel has been charged with tasks requiring the immediate feedback. The Business Continuity Plan helps all the stakeholders to be clear on the incidents command and the control structures, this minimises the confusion and helps to manage the crisis situation in an efficient manner (Dimattia, 2001). Information Management In such crises, there is need for the updated information on the situation in relation to the flight statuses, availability of assistance and the courses of action to be taken, this are the critical issues. At the same time, the stranded passengers would need updates on the situation, since the passengers could be frustrated, they can demand for the airlines and the airport authorities to provide them with timely information and updates. The stranded passengers would need to know the flight situation and the possibility for them to take-off for their intended destination. If the delay is prolonged, then they should be informed for them to decide whether there are the alternative travel arrangements to be made by the airlines management. The faster the airlines management can provide information and the updates to the stranded passengers, the more successful the airline will be in terms of obtaining the understanding and the more cooperative the passengers can be. The effective information dissemination enables the airlines and the stranded passengers to work together by undertaking the temporary arrangements, like the arrangements for temporary hotel accommodation or for the alternate means of transportation, the measures to be undertaken until the situation returns to normalcy. In such situations, the airports and the airlines can resort to the use of the mass media to broadcast key messages and issue the information alerts and the u...