Skylion, BA's longhaul pilots are working to the legal limits already: the list of people on the status sheet each month who are up on the rolling 900 hour limit runs into pages - the productivity issue is not there in LH.
As to shorthaul the fundamental issue is whether the integrated network carrier has any future at all. Without shorthaul feed a lonhaul network carrier can not survive and yet the shorthaul network that feeds longhaul at a main hub is INEVITABLY inefficient in terms of daily aircraft utilisation compared to the point to point model of the lo cost carrier.
The reasons for this are fairly obvious - interline baggage, turnaround times where aircraft need catering, fitting the arrival times of the waves of incoming SH aircraft to provide realistic integrations with the Longhual services, nighstopping aircraft at European outstations to facilitate the interline connections etc etc.
BA SH pilots are not unproductive in terms of DUTY hours and at, in the LGW case, often 750 + flying hours per year not that inefficient compared to the lo costers in terms of flight hours, (or stick time as the Americans say), either. On a personal note I dont think I could physically cope with a 30 year career of over 750 hours SH flying a year anyway.
It is notable that many BA shorthaul pilots earn less than they would at an equivalent seniority in a lo cost carrier.
I think Ed Roddington has it when he says the "elephant in BA's row boat" is the 4.8 Billion of debt incurred by Robert A@ling. Compared to a cashflow positive company from interest on money at the bank like Ryanair, BA is slowly drowning in interest repayments.
There are, I suggest, very real isssues of Corporate Governance that allowed a Board of Directors to act with such impunity as far as shareholder value is concerned. I doubt very much that they will ever be addressed
The only solution appears to be the "run the production line faster and blame the workers", so often the way with British Industry over the years.
One thing is for sure, BA's LH network will not exist without shorthaul feed. I doubt that costs could be taken far below what is already achieved at operations like the Gatwick shorthaul network, at least on the pilot pay and productivity side, in an open market. The issue has to be either a restructuring of the debt or the end of a British integrated network carrier. Perhaps the latter course is the discipline of the market at work, but I and my pilot colleagues didn't create the overdraft.