I met Lord King several times and found him to be charming and charismatic. However he didnīt suffer fools, and could be very hard on anyone who showed any sign of weakness or lack of ability. He and Marshall cut out most of the dead wood from BA and made it into a lean , efficient airline, a process that Ayling reversed.
Newcomers into the airline business always extoll the virtues of competition but then complain when the established carriers fight back. Laker went to the wall because, having borrowed money in dollars, the dollar rose against the pound when most of his revenue was in sterling. The settlement with a group of airlines was, in US terms, for peanuts and was considerably cheaper than going to court. I wonder how much of this money found itīs way to the Laker employees. The cases that actually went to court in Miami were lost. I doubt whether many Laker staff would have lost any sleep if King had failed and the BA staff had been stacking shelves.
Although Branson won the libel case, he lost all of the īDirty Tricksīcases that came to court. I believe that he had to pay BAīs costs but my memory of this is from `BA Newsīat the time so am willing to be corrected. However the īDirty Tricksīsaga, whether true or not (please donīt quote the various works of fiction to me), was probably the best
PR coup that RB could have dreamed of. To have people refusing to fly BA, although childish behaviour so long after the event, proves what a brilliant
PR event it was for Virgin. RB and Virgin donīt seem to have done too badly in the last few years.
Lord King was a brilliant businessman who took no prisoners. It is only natual that those who have been burned will be bitter, but that does not detract from what he achieved with BA.
Airclues
(I have my hard hat on so fire away
)