Of course, I forgot to mention, but the whole attitude of BA management to the development of this plan is highly typical of poor management. Whereas a good manager would consult his workforce before plans are made, to get them onboard with the development of the operation, in this case they appear to simply have presented it as a fait accompli.
The problem of a workforce and management at loggerheads is simply unforgivable in an age of huge amounts of management training - MBA courses and the like - none of which would advocate this course of action. Perhaps BA are not recruiting enough fresh, young MBAs, and still have too many old codgers from the times of the nationalised business.
Another round of management cuts seem in order...