I've just spotted this little quote from the Transport Minister Dr. Stephen Ladyman.
It's in response to a question and answer session on various transport matters posed by The Consumers' Association on the back of this June's Which? magazine.
Q) A £1 levy on air tickets has been proposed to cover people when airlines go bust - why do you oppose it?
A) We don't charge a levy in any other area of commerce in case the company you're dealing with is going to go broke. More importantly, I think companies like British Airways, which are not going to go broke, had the argument - and I think it is a legitimate one - "Why should we make our passengers pay £1 so that some under-financed airline can take our business away?"
Now don't let the thread drift away into debating the £1 levy, but I thought it was worth quoting our very own Transport Minister suggesting that British Airways are not going to go broke.
Yet according to Willy & Co, we are in grave danger of doing so if we don't achieve the fabled 10% operating margin. Talking of which, net debt has reduced by £1.4 billion over the past year (with only an 8.5% operating margin), yet the trustees have stated that they agree that the company can't afford the ongoing cost of the current increased pension contributions which are only about £235 million per year.
Something smells bad to me.