Fuel costs - if not hedged, the cost over the year would still have remained the same. See the following:
Slide 33 -
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External...R5cGU9Mw==&t=1
Walsh's comments on BASSA negotiations in IR transcript (p12):
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External...R5cGU9Mw==&t=1
Today we are going out offering unpaid leave to all employees in the business. We're offering temporary and permanent
part-time to all of our major groups. And we're also focusing on our supplier spend. And I'll go into these in a little bit more
detail now.
We have, in the main, five main negotiating groups. The first is our GSS, Ground Service Staff. But it also includes cargo operation and Gatwick. We have concluded negotiations with that group. And we signed an MoU that is currently being balloted on. The ballot should finish early next week. And that is a fundamental change in the working conditions in the agreements we have with those groups.
With our Engineering section we've also reached agreement on a -- and signed an MoU that will be balloted on starting next week. Our engineering trade unions are recommending acceptance of that. It's a fundamental change again from the agreements that we've had in place. We've had good progress in our discussions with pilots. And they have indicated that they intend to ballot soon on changes that are proposed.
Progress in the other two areas has been slower with our administrative staff, and in the main our customer-facing staff in the terminals. We are making some progress, but it is slow. And we've injected some urgency into those discussions over the last few days.
And regrettably the one area that is lagging behind the other groups is with cabin crew representatives. Now there is a difference in attitude and approach being adopted by the official trade union versus the, if you like, the officials, the paid trade union officials and our elected representatives. The official line is that this is a temporary issue and should be solved by temporary change.
I'm pleased to say that the vast majority of our people recognize that temporary change and temporary solutions are not enough, and have faced up to structural change, and permanent change to address the nature of the challenge that we see at the moment.
So I am confident that through negotiation we will be able to agree acceptable terms to transform the way we operate at British Airways. But there is significant discretion available to management in terms of implementing change. And clearly we will not hesitate to implement change where we believe it is necessary, not just for the survival of the business in the short term, but to ensure that the business is well positioned for long-term benefit.