I'm amazed that no-one has mentioned BA's bloated and overpaid management structure as being a source of huge economies. At the top you have Mr Walsh, of course, who could be replaced with someone of equal or better competence and willing to work on, say £150K instead of 11/12ths of the obscene unearned salary that Walsh gets for driving BA into the ground. Don't forget his pension, share options etc etc.
If anyone doubts that BA could reduce staff in the administrative, HR, finance and marketing departments by 75% without noticing the difference, closing down vast offices at the same time (Waterworld for a start), and then pay the remainder 60% of what they get now without losing a single person of value, they need only take a trip to the White House to see how it can be done.
But that's never going to happen. BA is saddled with this huge, cumbersome and expensive bureaucracy, and in the traditional way the ONLY way it can get rid of it is the bankruptcy that it eventually causes.
Incidentally, get this, found on the web....
The corporate headquarters of British Airways, Waterside incorporates an internal street that creates an active social hub for employees and visitors. Designed by Niels Torp.
That roughly translates as "we are off with the fairies in our own little well-cushioned world, as we interact socially, being very nice to each other, getting this diversity thingy right, and so on, instead of doing anything productive." I bet all the senior managers have PAs to nursemaid them.
Ask Ryanair what they think of an Active Social Hub instead of a Head Office. And of "PA"s.
If Willy was worth 1/20th of his salary, he would have closed Waterside down and sacked the lot of them on Day 2 of his employment.
But he is not, and he did not.
And then there's the unbelievably inefficient BA maintenance monster, spread around the UK, wasting money. But let's deal with the unneeded administrators first. At least maintenance has a business purpose that the bureaucrats do not have.