Originally Posted by
Chugalug2
If by ownership of air access to London you mean the London slots, these are not owned but allocated. They can just as easily be re-allocated. If BA, by strikes, management incompetence, whatever, is unable or unwilling to provide a dependable use of those slots then they should be re-allocated. The slots are not there to provide life long employment to anyone.
The navel gazing by some here has only one logical outcome. No company is too important or too large to fail, as those employed by Pan-Am discovered.
You put your finger on the critical issue, who decides who gets the London slots.
I do not know what process is used to allocate them, but it was very contentious iirc last time when some were reallocated, possibly after the Pan Am demise. Obviously the government has ultimate authority, but presumably there is compensation if slots are removed by decree.
So they are a huge BA/IAG asset right now which should remain intact even if BA/IAG gets massively restructured, as long as the enterprise continues to maintain the current usage level. That leaves plenty of room for massive personnel and policy changes.