Dihaz,
You and I view it from a somewhat differing perspective. I don't want to hijack this thread for political ranting so I won't bother. Labour has NEVER had a good economic record. Just remeber it was Harold Wilson in 1976 who was forced to go cap in hand to the IMF to borrow 3.9 Billion (quite alot in those days). The public sector has had billions pumped into it with little/no productivity increase and a NHS that has more managers than nurses almost. Gordon Browns disposal of ALL banking regulations, squandering of private pension reserves and the UK gold reserves led to the mess that the UK is in at the moment. The banking crisis has not hit Australia anywhere near as hard as the UK through statutory regulation although the global economic situation has hit most countries equally.
The airlines are suffering under the ability of ALL Governments in this country to jump on a (preferrably Green) bandwagon and subvert it into a tax generation excercise.
If you really must then PM me as I won't respond to any more political discussion on the thread.
The 'rumour' from within is that the airlines are playing hard ball and using the potential job losses, coupled with the exhorbitant costs, to bring the abject unfairness of the APD into the public domain.
As with anything BA, wait and see.