A fascinating debate about an interesting question.
Like others, I would like to put the question in context. Aviation has, historically, world wide, grown by 6% per annum. It has "shocks" in its market place, as do all big sectors. (Think 9/11).
Boeing predict that it will continue growing at 5% per annum for the foreseeable future. There will be more "shocks".
However, future growth will be far higher in inter-Asia travel, and intra-China travel.
The growth in the recent past which BA have had to "manage" is interesting. The Ezy's and Ryans have not actually crippled BA. They crippled the Charter sector.Anyone remember charter airlines - the ones that used to grab all the growth?
So BA have to manage low/moderate growth, in a climate where consumers look at Price as the first, second and third issues when they book a seat.
All airlines are good at safety, so safety is not a competitive differentiator.
The "Brand" does not deliver its promise, unlike, say, Dulux or Farrow and Bull - so that won't help you.
So what is BA? So what should BA do? And, going back to the question, what should it do about short haul?
(Remember that BA is a very large pension scheme with a small listed Co attached to it. That small listed Co still gives free First Class travel to Directors and many of its staff)
Well I have to say that no organisation is capable of defining a new business strategy that would require another form of organisation to carry it out. If that is true, BA is condemned to a slow painful demise.
As mixture says, BA is a big old bureaucracy. If you were starting a lean, mean, competitive organisation to-day, you would not start with BA. Take a look at their offices and overheads, and compare them with Ezy's.
Walsh won't make the required changes - he's had his time and lost the energy required.
If I were running BA I would allow the old BA to die, and set up in a different Co a completely new Co that the old BA's managers and TUs would not be allowed to influence - nothing. De nada.
Grow that completely new Co entirely independantly from old BA - using facilities far removed from Waterside, and route by route kill off the old business. And the new business should also be promoting Boris Island and lobbying to kill off Thiefrow.
As to the short - haul, let it die except where it makes serious money. Do they need to waste those slots on Prague????