Team size: 28

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Over the past year our team has been engaged in a wide range of legal matters, from trade union disputes to creating new subsidiaries and from expanding joint businesses with other airlines to navigating consumer law issues and Russian sanctions.

More specifically, we have advised on the negotiating of recent staff pay deal, on industrial action, on the expansion of our joint businesses with other airlines, on licensing of the Avios brand, on the economic regulatory framework at Heathrow airport and in respect of Russian sanctions and the impact on our Russian operations, aircraft and Russian-based staff.

Furthermore, we created a new London Gatwick subsidiary, BA Euroflyer, as part of one of BA’s pandemic recovery efforts, we successfully defended against a CMA investigation into customer refunds and successfully concluding a US class action into customer refunds and achieved a partial reduction of BA’s fine in the air cargo fuel surcharge cartel, by just under €20m.

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities?

Climate change and sustainability has a huge impact on the company’s priorities and consequently on those of our team. Following the parent company of BA’s commitment to achieving net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050, BA launched Better World in late 2021, putting sustainability at the heart of the business. This means embedding sustainability into every aspect of our operations, pioneering innovation and implementing a roadmap of short, medium and long-term plans to reduce emissions and waste. In the short-term this includes improving our operational efficiency and introducing carbon offset, while in the medium to longer term we are investing in the development of sustainable aviation fuel and looking at how we can help accelerate the growth of new technologies, such as zero emissions hydrogen-powered aircraft and carbon capture technology.

Recent activity includes taking delivery of the first batch of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) produced by Phillips 66, making it the first airline in the world to start using SAF produced on a commercial scale in the UK. Also, we have initiated sustainable aviation collaborations and investments with bp, with renewable fuels company Velocys, with sustainable aviation fuel provider LanzaJet, a potential facility for BA in the UK, as well as with Zeroavia, exploring hydrogen-powered aircraft.