WHBM,
Exactly, it's the extra costs which brought BAcon / BACX down. An exaple being when we operated the J41. it was a difficult aircrraft to make money with , but when we were a franchise only before becoming a wholy owned subsidiary, we could at least demand to only pay BA the going rate for a turnround. It could just about tick along.
As soon as BA Bought BACX, turnround and associated costs almost doubled since BACX had to pay the full BA internal rates. Overnight the J41 became a financial disaster area and it had to be given away to Eastern.
No doubt they are doing wery well with them particularly as BAConnect are still paying for them.
The WW ethos that every part of a company has to pull it's weight and contribute to the bottom line is all very well, but it becomes a bit of a farce when other parts of the operation prevent it from operaing efficiently.