Non pilot and occasional BA customer here. There are so many issues and valid points, I'll itemise some, to make it simpler for you to shoot me down.
- Public perception SHOULD be changed but it won't be.
- Bear in mind that many British people think that BA mainly carries those who are not paying for their own ticket and will have less sympathy. [Yes, I know that is not the case]
On these two points, remember that the Great British Public care about very little indeed that is outside of their own field of view.
- The shareholders with influence are NOT the individual but the corporate and the pension funds and they do not care about individuals. The irony of that is just too sick to be funny.
- The City are on the same side as WW but, even if he fails and is sacked, the City boys will still make money so they don't really care what happens. If BA falls to bits, someone will pick up the bits and make another airline. So they will carry on regardless.
Above all, in the highly personal passions that this issue raises, I suspect that there is a simple generational split. Those are are going to lose and those who are going to win are in two different generations.
The one side are those who have been working [flying] a medium to long time for BA and the other is those who have been working [administration] for BA for a short time. The problem is that the admin people have almost everyone on their side and I expect that they will 'win'. If win can be said to include crippling BA. But British 'management' has a habit of taking American ideas and taking them to the
nth degree - far beyond what any American would do. The Americans and the rest of the world sit back and watch the Brits make a complete Horlicks of it and learn their lesson. WW may be Irish but I suspect that he has been selected by the board to make the next British adventure in management and teach the whole world a lesson.
Lastly, I suspect that the above two groups are split by an age line that runs at +/- 45. Above that and you are flight crew with much to lose, below that and you are management with nothing to lose. and therein lies the real rub. The management have nothing to lose and so they will fight. The pilots have everything to lose and so they will fight.
Sadly, I expect that the pilots will lose and the UK will, collectively, fall another pace down hill. That is no reason to not to fight but the UK will lose either and both ways.
As usual, I sit to be corrected.