“From the consumer’s point of view the choice of carrier now comes down to which airline offers the best fare for your destination.”

Previously economy passengers could enjoy a snack, such as a cheese toastie, and a complimentary drink on nearly all flights. But under the new edict, and after signing a deal with M&S, economy passengers would have to pay for refreshments on all flights less than five hours.

Telegraph Travel readers were not impressed. In our Telegraph Travel Awards, in which more than 90,000 people voted, British Airways fell from the top spot in the short-haul airline category to 13th overall.

And it didn’t stop there. In the months that followed the disappearance of free food, legroom shrank from 30 inches to 29 on the A320 and A321 planes (the same as easyJet) and flowers were chopped from First Class toilets. The glory days were, it seemed, officially over.

March 2018

A race to the bottom with ‘Basic Economy’ long haul

British Airways continued its no-frills reinvention into 2018 by scrapping reclining seats in its short-haul cabins. But the biggest shift was on long-haul flights, with the unveiling of ‘Basic Economy’ fares to compete with other low-cost transatlantic carriers like Norwegian and Wow Air.

This meant that, for the first time, BA offered a long-haul ticket where checked luggage and seat selection would cost extra. The only differentiator was that BA continued to offer free meals on these long-haul flights, which Norwegian and Wow did not.

The decision did not land well. In a Telegraph Travel poll from 2018 with almost 10,000 respondents, we asked: ‘Do you see a bright future for British Airways?’. Some 65 per cent of respondents said ‘No, it cannot compete with budget carriers or Gulf airlines’ whereas 35 per cent said ‘Yes, it seems to be reinventing itself well’.

What irked BA passengers most was that, while the reduction of the passenger experience came with a price slash of 10 to 20 per cent, the cost was still nowhere near that offered by competitors. Not as cheap as the cheapest, not as comfortable as the priciest. British Airways was lost. Before long, passengers said they would rather fly ‘ABBA’ (Anyone But British Airways).

2019

In its centenary year, British Airways nostalgia falls flat

After a decade of paring back its on-board offering, British Airways still had enough cash in the coffers to commission a sizable marketing campaign marking its centenary year. Part of the campaign was to re-paint four of its planes in heritage liveries, while a television advert celebrating the airline featured the likes of Olivia Colman, Gary Oldman and Antony Joshua.

The ad concluded with the message “We love you Britain. You make us who we are” before the final statement: “British Airways. Made by Britain.”

But the advert became something of a PR blunder, coinciding with a pilot strike over pay and conditions that forced stranded customers to wait for hours on its understaffed call centre lines. At a time when public sentiment towards the airline was already dwindling, the sycophantic campaign did little to reignite nostalgia in the good old days of flying. In fact, it had the opposite effect.

May 2021

A new CEO tries to lift the airline from rock bottom

2020 was a landmark year for British Airways, for the wrong reasons. Not long after the outbreak of Covid-19, and the resulting redundancies of thousands of staff, CEO Alex Cruz announced the retirement of BA’s last in-service Boeing 747s, a decision already underway but hastened by the pandemic. Just days later, Cruz left his post as CEO to be replaced by Aer Lingus’s Sean Doyle.

In their first major campaign under Doyle, and for the first time in years, BA turned its sights on the economy passenger. No longer were they targeting champagne flutes and perfectly cooked steaks on bone china plates, or hiring celebrities to talk about how marvellous British Airways is. A campaign called ‘You Make Us Fly’ released in May 2021 simply focused on ordinary people who deserved a holiday after a difficult time, with cabin staff and pilots cast as the “stars” of the film.