TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS
Weekly Business Lunch, which was held at Google’s London head office. LEE HAYHURST reports
The politics of doing business As a woman running a FTSE 100 company, McCall attracts almost as much attention because of her gender as she does as a chief executive. She is keen to see more women in top jobs. McCall said: “I will always appoint on merit, but I try to ensure any company I work for is fair and offers equal opportunity. “It’s [a question of] making sure there is a pipeline of women, because there is always a pipeline of men.” However, she added: “There is a big
Carolyn McCall is
interviewed by Travel Weekly’s Ian Taylor
‘BIGGEST THING WE’VE EVER DONE’
“A passenger would rather know if there is going to be a significant delay, so we give them real-time information in a transparent way [as soon] as we know it. When I said [we should do] that to our operational control centre they thought I was mad. “But, fundamentally, easyJet was, and is, a fantastic business. That kept me going in the darkest hours when I thought ‘This is never going to change’. “Airlines are brilliant
at talking logistics. But the key to it all is the customer.
“The whole language of the airline has changed now.”
Targeting new audiences McCall has abandoned or modified many principles that once appeared fundamental to the low-cost carrier model, such as the free-for-all for seats. In the process she dropped the ‘low-cost’ tag altogether. EasyJet introduced allocated seating in 2012, although the focus on cost remains. McCall said: “It seems a ridiculous thing
to say, but allocated seating was really a big deal. For a free-seating airline, it was heresy. “Once everyone got it, it was the single
biggest thing we’ve ever done. So many people who would not have considered flying easyJet now do. There is an important
business lesson there. You might have something that has worked for you for years and you believe in it entirely. But if you are wedded to something and you don’t challenge it, you get stuck. All I did was ask ‘Does it still work for us?’” That does not mean moving wholesale from what the airline does well. McCall added: “When we opened our route to Moscow, we were asked relentlessly to put a curtain between our forward and back rows. We refused. It just seemed nonsense. “If you want extra leg room, you can buy that. If you want to be at the front because you want to be off quickly,
you can buy [a seat in] the first six rows. “We are not going to be able to meet the needs of a business traveller who wants a glass of champagne and a luxurious lounge. “Our passengers don’t have time to sit in lounges.”
She added: “People get waylaid trying to do all the gilt-edged bits and that is not us. It would really over-complicate what we do.” The carrier has also yet to follow others in
offering inflight Wi-Fi. McCall said: “We have a lot to do over the next three years and it’s not on our priority list. Will airlines have Wi-Fi on board in future? Yes, it will become something everyone does. Do we want to be the first mover? No, because the return [on investment] is just not there.”
focus on what is not going right, and that is correct. But there should also be recognition of how far things have come.” McCall is sympathetic to parents’ concerns about the price of holidays in peak summer, but said: “We have a demand-led revenue management system and the fuller planes get, the more you pay. “The only way to solve this is for the
government not to have all schools break up within a week or two of each other. That is the only answer – otherwise you are going to get peak prices. I wrote to David Cameron [about this], before it became an issue.” McCall appears effective at dealing with politicians. But she said: “I don’t really like the word lobbying because it implies you’re doing something that other people are not. My approach is to put our position as well as I possibly can to anybody who will listen, regardless of political complexion.” She added: “We need to make sure people understand us. There is an economic argument for why we think APD is a bad tax, it’s not purely [down to] vested interest.” Some of the ‘politics’ McCall has to deal
with are closer to home. EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou was highly critical of the airline’s previous chief executive and has consistently opposed investment in new aircraft. McCall said: “He is a major shareholder so he has a right to state his position, which for eight years has been ‘Don’t grow, don’t expand, don’t buy planes’. “He has a big stake and he wants more immediate returns. We’ve returned more than £300 million to shareholders and that is increasing, but the board’s view is that we are securing the future [by ordering aircraft].” Asked to name the biggest challenge she
has faced – either transforming the airline, handling the City of London, dealing with Stelios or having three children in as many years [McCall has twins] – McCall does not hesitate. “The three children,” she said.
30 October 2014 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 71
“EasyJet
is a fantastic business. That
kept me going in the darkest hours”
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