silverstreak and all the other doom-mongers...
Imagine yourself as CEO of BA. If a merger with IB is so bad, what *strategic* action would you take now (not 5 years ago) to ensure that BA has a long-term profitable survival, noting that
1) BA is essentially a network airline and needs to make a profit from this sort of activity
2) BA has a big pension shortfall and will have difficulty getting finance for fleet renewal until this pension hole is filled