I don't doubt that its made progress, but still has a long way to go. I was most concerned by this comment from Keith Williams "We moved BA's operating profit target from £ 1.1 bn to £ 1.3bn by 2015 for a reason. By making £ 1.1 bn we would be treading water - holding our own but nothing more. By making £ 1.3 bn we will be providing investors with a return on capital, making them money, as all businesses need to."
So currently its only making a third of its profit target, in what I would consider to be good conditions over the last 12 months (ie Oil Prices, Economic Growth etc). Compare that to the levels of profit at Delta, America, Ryanair and easyJet (taking into account their respective balance sheets, passenger km's etc). So where is that 800m going to come from? No doubt Vuelling will help, but from that I've seen BA needs to meet its own profit targets for both Long and Short Haul.
Ultimately the penal interest rate you have to pay on your loan is because British Airways still has a junk credit rating, so you have to pay a huge markup compared to the base rate.
As I said, this would not have stopped me taking up the role but it did give me reservations. I think its great that your defending BA G-FORC, because it shows that your a better match at British Airways than me.