Originally Posted by
LGS6753
Surely you don't want to go back to a situation where politicians run airlines, bad decisions proliferate, innovation stops, fares rise and inefficiencies abound. Because that's what nationalisation means in practice.
Going back to the days of government meddling in decisions as to what aircraft are purchased, and restrictive route licencing? Certainly not. I don't really
want the government to go down the road I described. However, give the likelihood that air transport won't get back on it's feet for the rest of this year, very possibly well into next year, there are likely to be large sums required to tie over not just BA, but all the other UK carriers, that is virtually unavoidable. The thought process goes that rather than chuck £200m here, £500m there and perhaps £1bn somewhere else it might be smarter from a financial perspective to bring the whole lot together, creating economies of scale, whilst ensuring that professional management, and definitely not politicians in charge of running the business. This could be as a short / medium term solution; in the interim period new carriers would spring up, unfettered by route licencing restraints, and the government supported carrier flogged off, preferably to UK interests as and when feasible.
I very much doubt the industry would go this way, for political and ideological reasons, but from an economic point of view it may be the best course of action, depending upon just how bad things get, and they have already got bad, for the employees of not just BA but many others, including SAS and Lufthansa.