No I don't have to resort to being snide Fillosan as I've already posted a point by point rebuff of your position on the R&N thread. But if you haven't seen it, I'll do one here for your benefit also.
Forget AF, forget Airbus, this was a BA decision, Airbus just went along with it - OR - were given purely French ultimatums
Do you have any substantive proof of these claims, because it's certainly counter to the opinion of every source I have within BA, and a very good source outside BA. What is a 'purely French ultimatum' and why is it not significant to BAs operations?
given Virgin the opportunity to prove their point. They ARE a good airline. They are profitable too.
Why should BA give any competitor the chance to take our flagship aircraft and best marketing tool? As I've said before, this is business. Virgin are a good airline, but they are also a small, niche longhaul airline. BA compete against the global players too, and in the grand scheme of things are doing OK for a privately owned airline independent of state subsidy. Virgin are profitable, but scrutiny of their accounts would also show their profits often stand or fall on the multitude of wholly Virgin-owned companies which trade exclusively with Virgin Atlantic. When Atlantic make a profit, they show a loss. When Atlantic show a loss, they have shown a profit. All legal and above board, and all money in the Virgin group, but certainly a sophisticated way of massaging results.
BA have been tainted for years
That was a long time ago, and even Virgin staff have found it in their hearts to forgive BA and go to work for them. Branson came out of it smelling of roses and uses it at very opportunity to promote himself, and why not. The world has moved on.
predatory route applications which resulted in massive penalty payments
When exactly was the last one of these?
This doesn't mention the bad management that exists. Good people, VERY good people treated like something the cat brought in
And a lot of people treated very well by the good management that exists. I'm afraid you can't tar 50,000 people with the same brush. Just because some people feel aggrieved and choose to shout about it doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of good work going on behind the scenes that people don't crow about. I think I'm in a rather better position than you to make a balanced judgement on that.
stop trying to extol the virtues of BA - it hasn't got any
I suspect the guys who resigned from their previous airlines on the basis of a BA job before 9/11 would disagree. They were all employed by BA, even though they didn't have to be, and could carry on paying their mortgages as a result. I also suspect that all the terminally ill children that the Dreamflight charity takes on holiday would disagree. I suspect all the other charities that BA funds would disagree as well.
Everyone wanted to fly with her, the charters proved that. (ummm! Why did BA not carry on with those - they made pots of the stuff
1. Because as the aircraft were modified the priority was to restore the JFK route. This requires at least three aircraft.
2. Because some aircraft were approaching the limit of supersonic cycles and it became necessary to preserve these until the heavy maintenance was due around 2007.
3. Because the aircraft were becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and it was an additional burden on Engineering to reliably provide a fourth serviceable aircraft for charterwork.
Concorde is an icon, a beautiful flying machine which is loved. BA destroyed it and they will not be forgiven.
BA made it. They could have retired it years ago, but they carried on promoting it as the pinnacle of air travel. When Concorde was launched it was a hugely expensive, environmentally unfriendly, noisy, polluting white elephant. It retired a legend. I suppose you think everything that happened in between was just chance? You may never forgive BA, but thats not really a problem. Every now and then one does come across a dyed-in-the-wool BA grudge bearer on these forums, and your comments above clearly mark you out as one of those. I suspect BA will never do right for you, but fortunately tens of millions of passengers every year find the opposite.