It doesn't really matter whether your managers are really Chiefs or just Indians with the wrong name - there are still too many of them at BA. Since Rod took over, the numbers have in fact INCREASED despite BA's capacity reduction programme. So why does it need more "managers" to oversee an airline that is running fewer sectors?
Porkypig - why should anyone have a company car? The captains who are "aeroplane" managers, some looking after 350 people for 14 hours a day, don't get one. Neither do the deputy aeroplane managers (FO's).
I work for BAE Systems - when we ran into trouble financially, the company laid off revenue earners and employed more admin staff. Sound familiar? The upshot was that our business unit closed and relocated to somewhere that the admin staff could be emplyed on lower wages and still have an equivalent (or better) disposable income. We now have a susatinable cost base that will allow us to ride the coming recession - with NO job losses!
For info: we are the flight training division, fomerly based in Prestwick, now based in spain, that was responsible for training (and still trains) a very large percentage of your pilots who have less than 15 years service to their names.
So here is a thought: Close Waterside, etc. Move BA HQ to Newcastle or Glasgow - damn good deals on property, cheaper living costs by at least 50% if you include the average mortgage, huge number of people looking for jobs anyway so you can save a packet on the pay, give people a good standard of living and selling all the real estate around Heathrow will provide a huge cash surplus to prop up or (heaven forbid!) REFORM some of the company structure.
LHR and LGW could then be outstations - and there is no reason why the pilots who live around there could not continue to do so as that is where a very large proportion of the work, thinking of long haul here, is to be found. The headquarters buildings are where the majority of your personnel are based - so moving this bit to a low cost area gives the potential to save a huge amount. The opprtunity could also be taken to slim down the staff numbers to something more in line with what the company is like NOW rather than WAS 2 years ago.
For heavens sake - something must be done. A change of course will be more effective than re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
[ 17 October 2001: Message edited by: moggie ]