Hi Floaty,
In response to your question of being able to transfer to BA Mainline somewhere down the line is:
Forget it.
At the moment crew from wholly-owned subsiduaries of BA (such as the company I work for - BA CitiExpress) cannot transfer to BA Mainline, let alone people from franchise airlines.
So, the only way you could apply to get into Mainline is to send off for an application form as you would do for any other airline.
And in response to the first person who answered your question:
1) All GB Airways' routes are their own and always have been - no buying or selling of routes has gone on, or does go on.
2) BA is actually making HUGE improvements financially:
Last year we made a full-year pre-tax loss of £200,000,000.
For the LAST 3 MONTHS just gone we have made somewhere in the region of a £300,000,000 pre-tax PROFIT.