Introduction
British Airways London Eye is one of the most imaginative accomplishments of design and engineering ever seen. Conceived and designed by David Marks and Julia Barfield, the London Eye is a unique and exciting vantage point for Londoners and visitors. Compared to Eiffel Tower of France, British Airways London Eye is not only an amazing new landmark for Great Britain but also a new standard for architectural and engineering innovation. The British Airways London Eye is a privately funded partnership between British Airways, the Tussauds Group and Marks Barfield Architects. Financing for the project was provided by Westdeutsche Landesbank and Sumitomo Bank.

Design and Technology

The remarkable British Airways London Eye became the ideal symbol for London in the Millennium. By designing a wheel, it represents the turning of the century as well as a symbol for time and regeneration. With the same concept of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, the British Airways London Eye provides everyone the experience of the structure along with the perspectives of the whole city below.
With the height of 135 meters and 120 meters in diameter, the British Airways London Eye is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and also the most popular tourist attraction in the United Kingdom. The London Eye is a completely unique design in the key ways below.

At first, the passenger capsules are fully enclosed and air conditioned. A visitor, who rides the London Eye, will have the chance to be in one of the 32 specially designed capsules, each able to hold up to 25 peoples at the same time. The large glass windows are the boosts to ensure the views and even make them more magnificent; and the views are totally incredible unobstructed since the capsules are located to the outer rim of the wheel. The capsules give passengers the abilities to walk around freely instead of sitting still like other wheels; with air conditions and temperature controls, passengers are ensured to feel comfortable. All of the capsules also give passengers reliabilities, safer feelings by the camera and radio links connected to the ground.

Second, the hub and spindle are supported by two 60 meters high tapered columns called the A frame. The entire structure is supported only from one side, which makes the British Airways London Eye unusual and different from other ferries wheels. By that special A-Frame, the London Eye is cantilevered out over the River Thames, which makes the structure more beautiful in design.
Also, the London Eye is like a giant bicycle wheel with cables rather than steel frames. Holding the rim by the designing cables, sixteen of them become invisible at night times and make the wheel look like it’s rotating by itself in the middle of the air.

Third, other observation wheels operated on a stop and start basic to allow for boarding and disembarkation. The British Airways London Eye is totally different. The wheel rotates continuously at quarter of the normal walking speed; so that passengers are enabled to walk straight into and out of the moving capsules. By rotating the wheel continuously, the waiting in line is decreased compared to other ferries wheels, where the wheels have to stop for disembarkation and boarding every time for every cabin. Passengers are able to experience the amazing without hours waiting in line, and by doing so; the British Airways London Eye has the chance to increase in capacity for hosting more passengers in the same period of time, meaning that more revenues are brought to the organization itself.

During its construction, the London Eye underwent extensive safety monitoring, testing and evaluation. Each morning, computers and humans perform a safety check on all aspects of the London Eye. During operation, safety sensors in each capsule send ongoing reports back to a control room on the ground. Every safety system has a back-up system as well. In the event of a problem, the ride operator can return a capsule, no matter where it is, back to the boarding platform in eight minutes, by either changing direction or speeding up rotation.

One of the factors that affect the design of the wheels is wind. Wind is the most crucial factor, and the wind engineering technology is one of the most important innovations employed in the London Eye’s design. The structure has been designed to be safe in all wind conditions and, indeed, to respond to them. The capsules are aerodynamically shaped for least resistance and tuned mass dampers are fixed to the outer rim to prevent the wheel from vibrating at its natural frequency. All of the intelligent systems designed in the London eye give the passengers the comfortable, smooth and safe experience they expect.

Design Objectives

The British Airways London Eye is designed based on the certain requirements and specifications so that it can become successful. When talking about the design objectives, there are five main factors are usually covered which are quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. In this section, we are going to cover the most two important areas which are quality and speed.

• Quality Sweeping the skyline at 135, the British Airways London Eye is the world’s largest observation wheel at the time. It is a unique accomplishment of engineering and design, which offers birds-eye views of the capital for over 25 miles in every direction. By the design itself, the British Airways London Eye ensures to deliver its products and service to its customers with the most satisfactions. By the unique designs of the frame, the cabins, the hub and the cables, the London Eye humbly but strongly locates next to the River Thames.
Also, British Airways London Eye uses the most advanced technology to keep its top safety level. By using the weather proof glass window, the cabin is resisted to the strongest wind and always provides its passengers a clean and deeply amazing view to most of the other attractions in London. The shape of the cabins is designed to prevent the cabins vibrating themselves, along with air-conditions; customers feel the comforts being inside the cabins. When the system is failed, there is always a backup which generate enough power to bring any cabin to the ground in the next eight minutes, so that customers do not have to worry about any unexpected situation in the air, just relax and enjoy their 30 minute-ride.
With that unique design of the observation wheels, the London Eye brings air travel to a whole new level. With the most up to date technology, well- maintenance and well-trained staffs to react in most of the situations, the British Airways London Eye surely tries its best to deliver the best service to its customers.

• Speed

Although it took seven years and the expertise of hundreds of people from five European countries to turn the London Eye into reality, but this amazing attraction surely delivery its services to customers with speed. When talking about speed, it normally concerns about how fast or how slow a service could be. By keeping the revolutions going on continuously, so that the London Eye does not have to stop anytime for boarding and disembarking, except for special situations which customers are disabled and really need the wheels to stop for safety, which minimizes the waiting times for customers to the lowest. With the capacity designed for the cabin up to 25 people each, the faster the waiting time has become for the customers. Also, with the advance in the reservations systems, customers have the chance to speed up the wait by buying the tickets in advance and come to the wheels at the time given.

The Four V’s of the British Airways London Eye

 Volume: The volume of the outputs of the British Airways London Eye is really high. The number of the passengers who come to enjoy the ambience of the ride in the air is extremely high.
 Variety: All the cabins are designed the same at first, although they are changed later in 2008. But then at the time the London Eye was designed, most of the passengers who come to the London Eye experience the same thing. There is only one service provided for the length of 30 minutes, and after that the customers just leave. So that the variety is low
 Variation: The variation is low also. There are predictable factors to show the high or low season, such as in Winter there are likely less customers compare to Summer. System is checked carefully every day and the London Eye usually has schedule to do the maintenance so that the possibility for breakdown is really low.
 Visibility: Since the cabins are designed to be located on one side of the frame, the visibility of the contacts are really high. Customers or passengers have chance to see the rides from a long distance and during the revolution also.

Process Type

The process in the British Airways London Eye is defined as mass services. With the process flow is continuous, which the wheels continuous rotating, customers come and go after the ride; the process tasks are also repeated too. Every ride is designed the same, the customer has the chance to go to the top then back to the ground. Along with the high volume and low variety in the process, London Eye provides too many customers by just one service; it’s clearly defined as a mass service.

Layout

Each customer is processed in a fixed sequence. Passengers arrive at the London Eye, buy their tickets, wait in lines, board the capsules, enjoy the ride and get off the capsules. Every customer is the same with no exception, along with the high volume and low variety processes; the layout is defined as product layout or flow layout. Also, in this layout, the costs are minimized because all of the tasks are repetitive and no process change-overs.

Job Design

The division of labor is really narrow. Because the flow is really fixed, with the low in variety and high volume model, there are not many tasks needed to require in a job. The job definition is closely defined, and the job commitment is really low. Let’s talk about the ticketing process, where the job of an employee just to check and count ticket at the stand repeatedly. Rather than the people who are doing the maintenance work, or controlling the system, the commitment of other positions to their jobs is really low. They may not feel that they could contribute to the work and get bored. Also, along with the advance system required, higher specialize training are needed for jobs in this organization.

Capacity Analysis
• 364 days a year ( no Christmas ) = 52 weeks
 25 people per capsule, with 32 capsules available would lead to 800 passengers.
 30 minutes per revolution, 1 revolution could handle 800 passengers so that during 2 revolutions, there are 1,600 passengers on board.
 Operation Hours varies :
 Summer: 10:10 to 22:00
12 hours/day  24 revolutions /day
24 revolutions/day * 7days/week * 24 weeks  4,032 revolutions
 Winter: 10:0 to 18:00
8 hours/day 16 revolutions /day
16 revolutions/day * 7days/week * 28 weeks 3,136 revolutions
 Annual revolutions  7,168 revolutions a year.
 The first year the January was not included so that
31 days * 16 revolutions/day  496 revolutions are excluded
So first year revolutions are: 7,168 – 496 = 6,672 revolutions.

Hourly capacity: 1600 passengers
Weekly capacity:
• Summer: 1600 passengers/ hours * 12 hours / day * 7 days/ weeks
 134,400 passengers/week
• Winter : 1600 passengers/hours * 8 hours / day * 7 days/ weeks
 89,600 passengers/week
Annual capacity:
24 weeks * 134,400 passengers/week + 28 weeks * 89,600 passengers/week
 3,225,600 + 2,508,800 = 5,734,400 passengers/ year
During the first year, the January was excluded so that the actual capacity for the first year is, and Feb of 2000 has 29 days so that 1 day is added to the calendar.
5,734,400 – 31 days * 12 hours/day * 1600 passengers/ hours + 8 hours * 1600 passengers/ hours
 5,734,400 – 595,200 + 12,800  5,152,000 passengers/ 1st year.

Theoretical 24 hour design capacity:
Daily: 24 hours/day * 1600 passengers  38,400 passengers/day
Weekly: 38,400 passengers/day * 7 days/week  268,800 passengers/week
Yearly: 268,800 passengers/week * 52 weeks/ year 13,977,600 passengers/year

Forecast data:
Average rate of 6,000 revolutions per year compare to the annual number of revolutions calculated: 6,000 / 7,168 * 100%  83.70%

Capacity Utilization
The forecasts anticipated that 2.2 million passengers would fly the London Eye in 2000.
Capacity Utilization = Expected capacity / Design Capacity * 100% = 2,200,000 / 5,152,000 *100% = 42.7%
The capacity utilization for the 1st year is only 42.7%, less than 100% because of many factors. If market demand grows, capacity utilization will rise. If demand weakens, capacity utilization will slacken. The 42.7% states that the demand for the British Airways London Eye is low, maybe due to the fact that it’s the first year of the observation wheel. The demand is low because some of the factors such as micro and macro environment. For example, during the time before the wheels opened to public, the marketing strategy was not successful as the second year. In order for higher capacity utilization, the London Eye could change the demand, and the most popular way to figure is to use the marketing mix.

Forecast revenue base on assumptions:
The prices were set initially at:
 £7.45 for adults
 £4.95 for children
 £5.85 for senior citizens
The assumptions are the passengers are 60% adults, 25% children and 15% senior citizens. The forecasts are 2,200,000 passengers for the first year lead to:
 1,320,000 adults
 550,000 children
 330,000 senior citizens
Those passengers would make up to the revenue of:
1,320,000 * 7.45 + 550,000 * 4.95 + 330,000 * 5.85
 9,834,000 + 1,633,500 + 1,930,500
 £ 13,398,000

Yield Management

In this case, the British Airways London Eye is just like others service providers such as airlines and hotels, the capacity is relatively fixed because the wheels have been designed this way and it would last in the same way. Because of the continuous rotation, unlike others observations wheels, the seats inside the capsules become perishable. It means that every seat cannot be stored for the next used, and for every cabin departs without passengers, the 25 seats cannot generate any more revenue. So that the London Eye can monitored and offer discounts for the off-peak hours.
Another way of capturing varying willingness to pay is to use the marketing mix to control the demand. By this way, the British Airways London Eye will concentrate more on the qualities of the services.
At the moment the London Eye designed, every cabin was designed the same way to provide the same experience to everyone. So that the variety of the services is really low. By increasing the range of the services, such as provide accommodations during the ride, the experience of passengers could increase. Also, the London Eye could use the advantages of the location and its unique designs to host events, which for corporate, parties, special occasion, or even an upgrade cabin where the experience are boost by wine tasting and hi-class food services.
About pricing, at first the prices are mostly consistent through any periods of the years. The price of the ticket is very important as it determines the company’s profit and hence.
There should be more options about pricing, and suggestions are:
• Prices should be seasonal. Winter is the time when the demand is lower than summer, so that prices should be decrease during this season.
• When pricing the service of the London Eye, based on what kind of service is provided; the price is different from each other. For example, the high class cabin should be more expensive compare to the regular cabin.
• Also, by targeting the passengers, we can divide the groups into different segmentation, such as locals and tourists. In order to attract more native people to use the landmark, the promotion should be given out to locals. Because the willing to pay for a service of a tourist is higher, and the return is likely less than a local person, it is importance to attract the people nearby.
Marketers for the London Eye can use different promotions to different segmented groups. Promotion in the advertising could be less than the promotion is given to an organization or big group who book the tickets in advance.
Also, by making the London Eye is easier to access; the sponsor of the London Eye is British Airways could give out package promotions for flights to London with tickets to the wheels.
By the unique architecture design of the London Eye, it has an absolute advantage compare to other observation wheels, so that it only has to exploit its available advantages to improve the revenue and not to worry about other competitors.

Along with the sponsor, the British Airways, the marketing objectives of the London Eye are consistent and likely the same. Both of the organizations try to provide a unique premium service whenever and wherever the customers come in contact with them. The customers will recognize the unique in the services and offers are worth it.

Conclusion
Today, the London Eye has become a symbol of modern Britain; it is the United Kingdom’s number one paid-for visitor attraction and film set for TV shows and movies. Since the first day the London Eye was built, it already had its available advantages as its remarkable amazing designs along with standard and safety. Along the ways, by adopting the right planning and managing strategies, together with its long time tradition, the London Eye is still continuing on the right track to the success of maximizing its revenue and profits.