BA's Go-Getter.

The moment you enter Stansted airport, you can see that consummate marketers have been at work for Go--the low-cost airline set up by British Airways last year to counter growing competition from budget operators.

It's sponsored the clocks in the terminal building with its bright green logo-cum-incitement to "go." And the check-in counter is a funky mix of colored circles and white backgrounds with fashionable staff in unisex trouser suits.

A strong sense of consumer marketing is one of the few things Go's determinedly independent American chief executive Barbara Cassani admits to having taken from 10 years with BA. From the day news filtered out of BA's plans to launch Go, she has tirelessly insisted that it is a separately run subsidiary and that it is not, repeat not, a cross-subsidized spoiler intent on driving the other low-cost operators out of business, before jacking up prices.

That said, one rival, Debonair, went into receivership at the end of September. But its failure, says Andrew Light, European transport analyst with Salomon Smith Barney, had more to do with a confused strategy and shallow pockets than with Go. The European low-cost market, dominated by UK-based operators, is growing explosively, he observes, and there's room for all the current players and probably more. Light expects 60 percent of travel between the U.K. and Europe to be on low-cost carriers this year, up from 12 percent last year. Europewide, meanwhile, the no-frils brigade have just 4 percent of the market, offering huge potential for expansion.

Major European airlines are certainly taking the sector seriously--they have to, says Light, because the budget operators, while growing the market as a whole, are also stealing their passengers. "Shorthaul travel will become lower cost," he says. "It won't be as bad as in the U.S. There the growth of Southwest was ignored and major airlines didn't invest. The likes of BA, Swissair, and Lufthansa will make sure that there is still a topbranded market here."

At the same time, having seen the success of operators like Ryanair, EasyJet, and now Go in the U.K., several more major European carriers are exploring the low-cost sector. BA was smart to get in there early. In 1997, following three budget launches in two years and a ruling from Brussels to create open skies across Europe, BA called Cassani over from the U.S. to research the market. Six months later they gave her a one-off check for [pounds]25 million ($40 million) to do it--and turn a profit within three years. BA picked its woman well. Thirty-nine years old, vivacious and informal, Cassani's go-getting confidence is tempered by a self-deprecating humor that plays well in Britain. Even her competitors say nice things about her personally, while muttering abuse about her corporate parent.

In 18 months she has built Go from two planes on three routes to 12 aircraft and 14 destinations. In year one, Go carried 800,000 passengers and the forecast for year two is 2 million. Losses for the first 15 months were [pounds]20m ($30m), but it's on target to break even next year. Fundamentally, what Cassani is doing isn't new. The formula of a cheap hub (London's Stansted versus Heathrow or Gatwick), one aircraft type, direct destinations, no ticketing, and so forth, is well established. Like arch-rival EasyJet, Go has opted for non-slot restricted airports that offer cut-price deals for airlines that want a simpler service. With less traffic, these airports mean faster turnaround times and thus lower costs, because planes can be used more efficiently.

What makes Go different is that it's doing things in style. As a child of BA, it's a small company, acting with big-company confidence-- tough on costs and standards but not afraid to spend money on a classy image. Cassani explains that when she did her prelaunch research, it showed that people were embarrassed about using low-cost carriers. Standards at home were no help. She dismisses the service on U.S. budget airlines as "poor," with the possible exception of Southwest, "because they don't pretend." Go, she says, takes more lessons from brands like The Gap and IKEA than from airlines.

A mother of two, Cassani calls Go her third baby and often describes the activities of the airline in the first person, "When people fly with me..." In both, endeavors, one suspects she leads from the front. So far, she says, Go has expanded the market on all its routes. The average increase is 18 percent, of which it accounts for 10 percent. Plans for the future include more routes and maybe a second hub--but that's down the line. Speculation that BA intends to float off its new baby is dismissed by Cassani with a laugh. It is early days yet, say analysts, but certainly a viable prospect for the future.

BARBARA CASSANI

Chairman

Go

Go takes more lessons from brands like The Gap and IKEA than from other airlines.

Age: 39

Birthplace: Boston, MA

Education: B.A., Mount Holyoke College; M.A., Princeton University, 1984.

Family: Husband, Guy Davis, M&A specialist with Wasserstein Perella in London; 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.

Hobbies: Reading and horseback riding time permitting.

On Work/Life Balance: "What I do juggling work and kids is no more than most people in the southeast [of England]. Yes, I have more pressure, but I also have the means to afford good support...I sit myself down regularly and ask, is this working for me, is it working for my job, for my kids, for my husband, and if it weren't I would change it."

Plans for the Future: "I don't make plans... maybe something in the public sector."