Abstract
This article investigates the motives behind one of the earliest airline privatisations in history, that of British Airways. The British Airways privatisation experience highlights the dynamic characteristics of privatisation policymaking from the perspective of a flag carrier, including the various motives behind the sale, competing interests, and sale structuring, among other. The principal British Airways privatisation motives were reducing company borrowing, stimulating efficiency, and achieving popular capitalism. These received priority at different times given the long privatisation process. The initial motives were reducing public sector borrowing and stimulating efficiency, followed later by the aim of extending wider share ownership. Curbing union power and fostering domestic competition were not privatisation motives.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful for the helpful comments of the editors and anonymous reviewers which have improved this article. This research originated during my degree at Cambridge. As such, I thank Duncan Needham for his support and guidance during this early stage. I am especially thankful to Ray Stokes and Takafumi Kurosawa for their continued support and insightful comments and advice. They have encouraged and inspired me, as well as helped shape this research. Thank you to Mark Billings, who has kindly offered his comments and support with the draft. I have presented various versions of this article at the universities of Glasgow, Kyoto, Cambridge, Oxford, as well as at events organised by the European Business History Association and the Economic History Society. I thank all the participants who have helped me improve it. I thank the kindness of the British Airways and Churchill College, Cambridge archives staff, who have treated me generously while conducting research. Personal appreciations go to my family, who have continuously inspired and supported me.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 By privatisation, I employ here the widely accepted and most common definition, specifically that of the transfer of ownership and responsibility of a business or concern from public to private hands. This should not be confused with deregulation, which entails the relaxation of regulatory controls of a particular business or industry, notwithstanding its ownership structure.
2 This is especially evident in Megginson (Citation2017), Parker (Citation2009), Clifton et al. (Citation2006), D’Souza and Megginson (Citation1999), Beesley and Littlechild (Citation1989), Bishop and Kay (Citation1989), Vickers and Yarrow (Citation1988). Nonetheless, there have been several studies where airline privatisation has been considered, although this has not been the main focus of their research. For example, see Amankwah-Amoah et al. (Citation2017), Amankwah-Amoah and Debrah (Citation2014).
3 See Morrell (Citation2013, Parker (Citation2009), Ng and Seabright (Citation2001), Al-Jazzaf (Citation1999), Green and Vogelsang (Citation1994), Ashworth and Forsyth (Citation1984). For a study on the post-privatisation performance of British Airways and its impact on competitor stock prices yet also lacking in the rationale behind the process, see Eckel et al. (Citation1997). For a study of the main UK transport developments, including air transport and British Airways and privatisation, see Bagwell and Lyth (Citation2002). Peter Lyth further explores airline deregulation within an international context, especially the interaction of British Airways and its predecessors with multinational organisations such as the European Community in Lyth (Citation1997). Other studies also consider the post-war UK transportation planning. In this sense, British Airways was not alone, rather it was among a series of planned transport privatisations within the domestic economy which occurred during the 1980s. For more on this example, see Anson and Crompton (Citation2009). For another complex study of airline deregulation, although from the perspective of its effect upon other forms of transportation, including railways see Millward (Citation2009).
4 For example, see Schiller (Citation2019). Here, airline deregulation is studied, although there is no specific acknowledgement of privatisation as a deregulation device. An example of change over time and in terms of preferences comes from outside privatisation scholarship. See Krueger (Citation1988), Working Paper 2504 for a study of how the U.S. Sugar Program was initially opposed by sugar producers only for them to reverse their support in favour of its continuation. This occurred over time due to market forces and state involvement to subsidies businesses.
8 British Airways and British Airline Pilot Association (Citation1977).
9 The featured sums are not adjusted for inflation.
12 The impetus of privatising British Airways early to alleviate government finances was widely accepted. For its main proponents, see Nott (Citation1979), Lawson (Citation1979).
18 For a more detailed explanation of UK privatisation motives, mechanism, objectives, and outcomes than what is permitted here, see Bishop and Kay (Citation1989). For a more theoretical and economics-routed study of UK privatisation mechanisms, Vickers and Yarrow (Citation1988).
19 See, for example, Parker (Citation2009). Parker skilfully utilises government records to portray the UK privatisation experience, although the analysis does not make use of company records to the same extent for us to get a more detailed account of the other parties’ involvement in the privatisation process. This is especially true for Parker’s analysis of British Airways.
21 British Airways’ new chairman, John King, undertook an extensive rationalisation programme which was instrumental for the airline’s turnaround. The measures, trials, and outcomes represent a story by themselves. While this is not the focus of the present article, organisational management researchers are encouraged to explore the underpinnings of King’s managerial measures as a case study for airline management during a recession. For King’s view of privatisation and British Airways, see King (Citation1987b).
23 The British Airways performance turnaround while under nationalisation has received some attention. For example, see Green and Vogelsang (Citation1994). This relates to a wider debate within privatisation scholarship on the effects of standalone ownership changes upon performance. Green and Vogelsang highlight that the most important performance improvements have come as British Airways was nationalised and under the policies of a new management rather than in the several years after privatisation. This casts doubt on the importance of standalone ownership change through privatisation rather than due to new managerial objectives as some of the principal drivers of performance improvements in the civil aviation sector. This article’s data also suggests the same improvements while under nationalisation rather than after privatisation. Disentangling the effects of standalone ownership change and other factors to explain performance continues to be a challenging endeavour, but worthy of further investigation using various methodologies.
24 Hoare Govett Limited (Citation1987). The figure is not adjusted for inflation.
25 Department of Transport (Citation1984). The figure is not adjusted for inflation.
31 Privatisation scholarship has had a tradition of perpetuating performance-oriented studies on the effects of privatisation upon efficiency and profits. Less so has been said about how trade unions and labour have been affected. For examples where privatisation and its labour impact are considered, see Arrowsmith (Citation2003), Ghigliani (Citation2010).
34 Kleinwort Grieveson Securities (Citation1987, p. 9); These very generous incentives made the British Airways bankers acknowledged that the airline was essentially ‘buying jobs out’.
35 Kenneth Clarke (Citation1985); Indeed, the government thought it was easier to satisfy the demands of several transport unions with British Airways and tame any risk of union action ahead of privatisation. Another prominent example is the 1984 UK Transport and General Workers’ Union encouragement to protest the privatisation. Yet the most powerful transport union was unsuccessful. This was due to the incentives offered to the workforce, which discouraged action; Mike Reed, quoted in Grugulis and Wilkinson (Citation2002).
37 Increasingly more studies highlighted the benefits of privatisation and competition at the time. For one of the UK government’s favourites, see Beesley and Littlechild (Citation1986). The government was quick to jump aboard the Beesley and Littlechild study’s proposals for deregulation and competition as they also perceived it as electorally beneficial. This is confirmed by Kenneth Baker, private correspondence to Walters (Citation1983a); The 1983 Conservative Election Manifesto also advertised fostering competition as one of the new principal aims for Thatcher’s second premiership, see The Conservative Manifesto (Citation1983).
38 UK Civil Aviation Authority, Summary of Main Conclusions and Recommendations, in Ridley (Citation1984, p. 275).
42 UK Civil Aviation Authority, quoted in Civil Aviation Competition Policy (Citation1984).
43 For example, see Steen (Citation1987). Thatcher’s confidant, Ian Gow, was also one of the more vocal challengers of the government’s disregard for its competition ideals, see Gow (Citation1982).
44 Another example of the government’s reticence to abide by its competition ideals came during the 1982–1984 antitrust litigation by Laker Airways against British Airways. Laker accused British Airways of predatory pricing on trans-Atlantic routes. The lawsuit was brought in U.S. courts. Thatcher lamented that she ‘would not be able to denationalise British Airways’, citing ‘disastrous’ consequences and ‘very serious political damage’, see Margaret Thatcher, mentioned in Thatcher (Citation1985a, Citation1985b). To protect British Airways, the British government intervened in the lawsuit, using its political leverage to force an out-of-court settlement by appealing to the U.S. government, see Thatcher (Citation1984). The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court in 1984, although the details remain confidential. The Laker episode highlights that the government was prepared to save British Airways from an active investigation meant to reinforce competition principles despite its self-proclaimed competition aim.
55 Waterhouse (Citation1987); Moore to Thatcher, 20 October 1986, T 533/182.
58 NAO, Department of Transport: sale of government shareholding in British Airways Plc.
65 Data from Geoffrey Howe, 1979-1983 Budgets, Hansard, House of Commons; Nigel Lawson, 1984-1989 Budgets, Hansard, House of Commons; John Major, 1990 Budget, 20 March 1990, Margaret Thatcher Archives, Retrieved from: http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/109412
[Accessed on 12.01.2021].
66 Scrimgeour Vickers & Co (Citation1987); As example, a £3.7 passenger yield means that the airline receives on average £3.7 revenue per passenger per mile flown. However, the yield is not an accurate comparator across airlines as it varies by route length and passenger class (first, business, economy, etc.), among other variables. Nonetheless, it is a civil aviation benchmark because it tracks revenue changes over time for a specific airline.
68 UK Civil Aviation Authority (Citation1983-1990); British Airways’ temporary decrease in domestic market capacity in 1986–1987 is predominantly due to depressed traffic as a consequence of international developments, including the Chernobyl nuclear accident and the Libya bombings. For more on the causes for this decrease, see Scrimgeour Vickers & Co (Citation1987).
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Notes on contributors
Adrian Cozmuta
Adrian Cozmuta is a double doctoral candidate in Economics and Economic and Social History from the universities of Glasgow and Kyoto. He has a long-standing interest in privatisation, international business history, and contemporary economic history. He has completed degrees at Cambridge and Glasgow.
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