4468 - Thanks for that. It may sound odd, but I have no personal low regard for any of the professional standards of BA - other than the ethical standards in their management - however there is such a perceived disingenuous arrogance and hubris displayed by so many BA personalities on here that I feel it necessary to redress the balance from time to time with a reminder of the more glaring logical inconsistencies that they propound.
Anyway, thank you for your concerns - I hope they are not needed, and all the best to yourself.
From a more global viewpoint, I believe the days of the Legacy carrier are well and truly over. In some respects this is why I believe the abstract concept of OS is the only one likely to succeed. Oil prices coupled with the apparent inability of most large National Carriers to implement and enjoy economies of scale as found in other multi-national industries mean that they will be encountering growing major business problems. If you ally that with an apparent ability to shoot yourself in both feet and the bum at the same time in publicity terms, then I doubt even the most adventurous of market forecasters could really see anything but trouble ahead. BA needed to have merged along the lines of the model of AF - not that I believe this will necessarily work for all the same reasons, however the size and scope mean that it has the resilience and strength, not to mention the multi national governmental support - to last a lot longer. (Neither does it have the dreadful debt and leverage ratios possessed by BA)
The UK Government possesses neither the imagination nor the chutzpah of the Italians - it more resembles the Belgians or the Swiss. That, I believe is the medium term future for BA, not identical, but a much slimmed down long haul product, solely ex LHR, with perhaps two or three wholely owned subsidiaries like Cityflyer and OS doing the less glamorous donkey work. However, a job is a job; neither Red Robbo, Arthur Scargill or the scaly toothy Dinosaurs from the Jurassic ever believed what was going to happen to them until it was too late. Too many vested interests in BA, from BALPA through BACC through all the 'support' services to change now.
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