IF it got to the point that BA had failed because things were so bad then somehow I doubt that assertion..
Air France, KLM, Alitalia, Emirates, Qatar, China etc etc could all easily muscle in under fifth freedom rights.
Compared to a month ago when I'd have said failure of IAG (or British Airways) was virtually impossible I'd be a lot more circumspect now. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if BA re-issues the HR1 with further redundancies in the next few weeks. :-(