Logica Plc and British Airways Plc have achieved a bit of coup with the establishment of a jointly-owned company to provide software services to the air transport industry worldwide. Called Speedwing Logica Ltd – British Airways owns 51% and Logica has 49% – the company will operate as a division of the Speedwing information technology division of British Airways. It plans to start trading on September 1 with an initial staff of 30, but is forecasting 150 employees and an annual turnover of UKP10m within three years. Speedwing revenues are around the UKP20m mark at present, and those will remain separate from Speedwing Logica, but that figure includes the company’s US transaction processing arm, Bedford Associates Inc, acquired by the airline in September 1987 (CI No 770), which may join the new company within the next two years. The founder of Norwalk, Connecticut-based Bedford, Howard Bedford, will become chairman of Speedwing Logica, and the managing director of Logica’s Far East operations, Ken Hapgood, is to be chief executive. Speedwing Logica intends to develop systems for revenue accounting, air mail, personnel, treasury, roster, technical and crew planning, baggage tracking, slot allocation, and stand scheduling. The company says that if a rival airline requested a system which gave it a competitive advantage over British Airways, then it would have no qualms about delivering such a product. Nonetheless, British Airways will be the major customer in the foreseeable future. This is the first time that Logica has been in a joint venture with a major client, and British Airways says that it chose Logica as the partner for a number of reasons. The airline spends UKP169m a year, 3% of revenue, on information technology, and outsources some 15% of its development work. However, much of that outsourcing has been on an ad hoc basis, and it wants to develop an ongoing stable relationship with an international systems house. In addition, British Airways is suffering from the skills shortage that seems to bedevil high technology, and says that it would be arrogant for it to suppose that it could provide all the talents that such a venture as Speedwing Logica Ltd needs.
