"British Airways is considering abandoning its loss-making shorthaul routes and consolidating as an intercontinental carrier"
This is a smoke screen... What they really mean is that will get rid of what they perceive to be expensive staff and transfer the routes to their "franchise" partners who by the way, are wholly owned subsidiarys.
Seems to me that they can have the same routes and the same revenue with cheap flying staff. I presume that even more management will be required to administer this "lean and mean operation"
Applications on sale at a lottery outlet near you..£50 a shot...Now that is how to make money out of shorthaul.