Must be a pretty good secret. So well kept the only airline boss who has backed FBI is Jim French of Flybe - one of Europe's leading REGIONAL airlines! Perhaps he knows FBI would drive BA & Virgin bankrupt if they moved there!
What Airline managers really want a bigger LHR, but if that cannot be done, then they would have to look at alternatives, which would be THA, If THA became the only airport serving London + South East, then they would be no risk of BA going bankrupt because of relocating (although they might do depending on IB financial performance), Virgin on the other hand is on its way to bankruptcy and forced sale to BA even if they stay at LHR (unless they do the unlikely thing of buying BA)
Besides, if all of London’s airports where shut down and replaced by THA (and the whole project is done well), then it would work out very well for BA, they would gain a world class airport with more than enough capacity to compete with their rivals in Europe and the Middle East
Do you really think that Willie Walsh is going to stand up before all his personnel, who all live around Heathrow, and say "I am lobbying for a Silver-Boris Thames airport" ? He would be lynched.
As I said before, airline bosses are all waiting for someone else to blame. "Sorry, its all Boris' fault. I did warn him not to do this. I did try and stand up for you guys, but its out of my hands. Sorry."
(Followed by the muffled sound of champagne bottles being opened.......)
Look in the event of BA decided to move to THA, they would do it even if their employees where against it (even if it meant compensating them), remember WW has confronted (in a lot of cases, when it’s not needed) his employees before and is prepared to do so for long periods, so there is unlikely BA employees will “lynch” WW
The bigger question is, doe’s WW and BA want to move to THA in the first place?
What their response is that if THA was built and LHR remained open, then they would not be moving to THA, but if LHR (and other commercial airports in London + South East) was shut, then they would
Of course what they really want is a bigger LHR (although WW has all but given up on that…)