To further rub salt into the wounds, the LT had the nerve to cancel a shareholder dividend whilst defending their own bonuses with the thinnest of veils, that they had made some sort of customer satisfaction threshold. Surely if no other evidence was required, this showed up the integrity of the BA board and LT.
The BASSA offer was based on that of the pilots, where the principle applied was that the recession was temporary. BA pilots will receive shares as compensation for sacrifices they made. BASSA did not believe the propaganda about structural change and how the business premium market would never recover. IATA figures just released show that premise to be false and the union was right.
As his strategy has failed, Walsh now has a dilemma. He cannot change tack; he is boxed in. There is huge support for a NO vote in the consultative ballot to be announced on the 20th, and there will be a strong YES vote for industrial action in the ballot to follow, scheduled for September. All Walsh can do is more of the same; scraping the bottom of the barrel for additional VCC from the USA and elsewhere.
There is a saying you know: when you are in a hole, stop digging.