Blackball
As for the future I guess we can only wait and see. If the company do try for 737s in the regions then I daresay that will be the acid test. Nothing personal but I do hope you are wrong!
I agree the customer wants value for money. However they also want to arrive at the city centre and on time - aspects with which we can most certainly compete. Personally I would argue that BA's cost cutting could be most amply rewarded on many other aspects of its operation.
When I say standalone I guess I'm really refering to it from a Flight crew point of view. As a point of comparison the way in which the CC are treated provides food for thought....
There's no way of knowing how the implementation of the SCOPE agreement will work out. The first test was of course GSS. The result was a messy compromise. BA have been left in no doubt that BALPA intend to pursue this agreement. If one day we find GSS being swallowed up by BA or the work generated being flown by BA pilots then that will be the day we know SCOPE worked. The end game is of course to keep BA generated work in house and in this imperfect world that can only be achieved one step at a time.
While conditions at SHAG are clearly not as at LHR they are better than they were, No? Not talking about the CC (that's BASSA's area...) To have started with an operation that clearly set out to undermine pay in shorthaul in BA, and end up with one that is on mainline pay (all be it with a pay cap at what, PP16?) is a step surely in the right direction. I suppose it is true that this means BA pilots on a seperate scale - your B scale? - but that rather masks the fact that without it pay rates at SHAG would almost certainly be lower....a C scale perhaps!
I guess the question is, will lhr move toward lgw or vice versa? If it's the former you will of course have been proved right (ok I'll buy the beer..) but of lgw moves further toward lhr arrangements (say BLR lite) then SCOPE will have justified itself.
Just in case I'll break in to the piggy bank and wait at the bar...
regards
Diesel