BA has not handled its shorthaul and provincial opportunities well.
CFE and BRAL were profitable and at no cost to BA provided them with incremental revenue and a presence in a wide variety of places that someone with the cost structure and general lack of flexibility BA mainline could never successfully reach.
BA mainline at Gatwick should have been rolled into CFE and left as an independent franchise run by its own management. At the very least that would have given BA an extensive LGW network at no cost to itself and with some revenue and franchise fee benefits.
Go was probably the future of shorthaul but ditched to give focus to mainline shorthaul which, with its costs, is probably long term a lost cause. EZY, Ryan, FlyBE, Eastern are all on the advance with new routes, new bases, and mostly big fleet orders. Where is BAs future expansion plan? General retreat can hardly be motivating . Revenue usually comes out faster than costs so whats left gets into deeper trouble unless theres a fundamental and total restructure and refocus.
Do we see BOAC in the crystal ball?