Whoever is advising him on the Employee Relations/HR side is not one of the best in this field, so it makes prediction more difficult. Quite clearly in their business situation, they cannot just "win" this episode, they need real, deep, complete change.
That means removing the poison that is BASSA and any BASSA reps as completely as possible/legal.
Normally to do that the top team would aim to claim the "moral high ground" with customers, staff and shareholders. Bassa have played in to their hands with the first strike call, and will also get the second strike call wrong.
What BA then need is for the other staff groups to be onside. If McCarthy has not yet been out for lots of food and wine with the BALPA shower, and the ex-Engineers in Unite, he should do so in short order.
Unite will be influenced to distance themsleves from Bassa, and then it will be a field day on the Bassa mafia. There will continue to be cross-over in to this dispute from the Unite elections. This will be a pain.
As I accurately predicted the outcome of the first strike call, (the legal issue) some months ago, I predict the above with some confidence. However, as Carnage and I have noted, BA have been moving more slowly than our crystal balls tell us.