fiftyfour,
You won’t get any argument from me about mismanagement. They have in my opinion bolstered their profits from time to time by selling off parts of their business. Properties, maintenance facilities ( u/c shop, engine workshops etc. If you go back to the days prior to privatisation, they paid off loans early that that needn’t have been paid, which made their finances look bad. This means that when they were privatised they showed an immediate profit.( I'm not going to mention the tail plane painting fiasco either
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To get back to the pension scheme which was the original point, there have been many factors which have caused the schemes (both APS and NAPS ) to be in the parlous condition they are in. Not all problems can be laid at BA’s door. As already stated, Gordon Brown / and financial markets are contributory factors.
As we know BA tried to treat themselves to what was surplus funds from APS (as they saw it!) 2/3 years ago, after having a pension holiday for approximately 14 years. Fortunately they were beaten in the courts. If they had succeeded APS would be in an even worse state today. As it stands now though BA have been forced to contribute £26M per annum back into APS. NAPS problems are still being negotiated I believe.
At least you are fortunate it only forms part of your pension, others will have to rely entirely on their BA pension.
(if some of this post is a bit incoherent, I lost part of it transferring it from Word
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