I am another who has been predicting a retreat to BOAC for some time. When the 'Future Size & Shape' project stated that they would retain regions, I suggested that it was a deliberate half way step, so as to only retreat in measured steps.
Large corporations that have been getting bigger and bigger over the years reach a point at which they must either make a staged retreat - or will collapse in one big bang, and then be bought up by a competitor.
The BA high table are making a steady retreat and appear to have (if you pardon the pun) saved the shareholders bacon.
I notice the steady push to T5 and so I see the strongest possibility that they will be BOAC out of T5 and nowhere else. The only caution that I would give is that, currently, they are promoting T5 as the be-all and end-all. They are saying (to us the pax) that it will solve all our problems. No company should ever start to build customer anticipation this far in advance of a launch. They should always
under promote the new product and then let customer perception and public reporting take it much higher.
Apart from that, they are doing what the big carriers of Europe have so far failed to do. They have seen some of them go bang and are trying to scale back without provoking too many strikes. And - NO - I am not a shareholder.
Oh yes, and they got Eddington to do the business on LHR 3rd slab of black-stuff AND the 2nd at STN is out of the picture for the time being
and LGW won't get their 2nd for ages. yep, it all looks good for BOAC Mk2.