BA are returning to profitability and loads are growing again. BASSA offered a temporary solution, which was not accepted. In 2 years, if BA are making £800m of which £150m is out of the pocket of its employees, then would that be fair?
Profitability, or a decent return on capital for investors who have had no dividends for a long time (one year-end excepted), and who are largely represented by pension funds anyway...?
Problem is, that you have the rest of the workforce - you revert to pre-recession Ts & Cs for all, and you have no profitability anyway. BA were not averse to inserting some form of profit-share / share option scheme as we well know that was part of the negotiation for other groups.
Let me address you point head-on: if one were to suggest that all was temporary and that all could revert to the way it was before post-crisis, that still does not address the fact that (a) regardless of bottom-line profitability, and (b) even accounting for a % return on capital for investors, that the airline is not operating with a similar free cashflow % at the end of the day that enables it to reinvest in new aircraft and maintain a business model in the long-run against Asian airlines who have a substantially lower cost base and younger fleet.
Profitability in itself is not an achievement - cashflow for dividends after reinvestment in assets and positioning for growth is.
I'm not going to go on and discuss financial structuring in detail, but I just wanted to address that one point that you have brought up a few times head-on.
Operating at anything other than market rates is, in the long-run, hindering the long-term success of the business, which is more important to achieve the goal of filling the NAPS hole, to enable most of the current workforce to actually retire on a livable salary.
Think of it this way - that is someone's £xbn tied up in the capital of the airline that bought its entire asset base from which it operates. Pension funds are the largest investor community in companies, though investment managers.
Going for companies' jugular is cutting of the nose to spite the face - the government is not able to fund the hole as it has squandered the tax windfalls of the past 15 years.