I actually think it's very tenable.
Kirkwood will be made the fall guy for the inept management of the T5 debut. Poor, quivering chap that he was reading his prepared statement and refusing questions on Friday, before, Zimbabwe-like, BA's tightly-honed
PR machine swung into action and alienated the last vestiges of the British media who might not have put the boot in.
Walsh is not popular, but when was popularity been a requirement of a successful CEO?
He has cut, cut, cut and whichever side of the fence you look at, this has delivered waht the Board wanted - a 10% margin.
The cuts came home to roost with lack of planning and training for T5. But that is strictly an operational matter. And it will be operational management who will bear the brunt of that.
There is even a school of thought which says BA will receive more in compensation from BAA written into the original T5 contract which disincentivesed them from investing in proper training to the required extent rather than the window dressing which was carried out.
It's an impressive terminal, and once the glitches are sorted it will be a great benefit to BA, and confidence will eventually recover. People have shorter memories than one imagines.