In conjunction with Monash University, Australia, and Newcastle University, England.

As airlines in Britain and other countries cut services and cut jobs, a new book to be launched in London on Friday (January 30) reveals many of the ills of the airline industry.

The book shows how airline workers and customers report high and rising frustration with the way they are being treated.

And the book, Up in the Air: How Airlines Can Improve Performance by Engaging their Employees by G. Bamber, J. Hoffer Gittell, T. Kochan & A. von Nordenflycht,* shows that airlines can - if they engage with their workers - provide a better return to investors, higher quality and more reliable services and more satisfactory jobs for employees.

Jim McAuslan, General Secretary of the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) who will speak at the launch, said: 'Faced with gathering clouds, this book has come at a critical time for our industry. Learning from this research we can as an industry either repeat the mistakes of history or learn from them.

'One airline chief is famous for saying it's my way or the highway. But the evidence is there that there might actually be a new way.'

Professor Greg Bamber (Monash University, Australia; Newcastle University), one of the authors who will be at the launch, said: 'The airline industry has been failing. In the first five years of this century, airlines in the USA alone lost over $30 billion while shedding more than 100,000 jobs.

'This forced the other workers to give up over $15 billion in wages and benefits.'

The book suggests that more airlines are likely to collapse and that airlines are facing a "perfect storm".

Professor Bamber said: 'Too many executives and trade unionists assume that adversarial industrial relations are inevitable. Much more can be achieved by airlines and other enterprises developing cooperative industrial relations.'

The authors argue that it is possible to design a more sustainable airline that better balances the objectives of customers, investors, employees, and the wider society.

'Deregulation should not mean an abrogation of government's responsibility to oversee an industry which shows signs of deterioration with an increasing risk of crisis' Professor Bamber added.

The book gives a fascinating insight into the airline industry around the world. It recommends that firms in other industries can learn from the positive experiences of the best airlines e.g. Southwest Airlines (USA).

This involves sustaining a positive workplace culture that fosters commitment to high-quality service. It means adopting policies for managing people that avoid long conflicts when negotiating new agreements.

'This calls for strategies that can sustain investor, employee, and customer support through the ups and downs of business cycles,' observed Professor Bamber.

The book contrasts the management style of Southwest with other airlines, especially Ryanair.

Professor Bamber points out: 'Unlike many other airlines, Southwest has been consistently profitable, it has not rushed into redundancies and it has a constructive relationship with its workers and the unions which represent them. Such enlightened employer practices are all the more important in the current global financial crisis.'
The book explores such issues in a readable way, using research evidence including studies of airlines from Britain, the rest of Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

The authors say their book's analysis not only applies to airlines, but also to many other enterprises. 

Further information from Keith Bill 020 8656 0860 or 07968 528 527

For more information about the book, go to: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu