Everyone will ahve noticed that BA have been advertising in flight in recent weeks. Since lots of the applicants are likely to be trying to escape from the low cost sector, how will the sign-up rate be affected if Wicked Willie brings the low cost ethos with him?

Scottie, wait till you see. His reputation as the boot boy of cost cutting is at stake and when one is on 500k stg min p/a and the c/x of ba , he's not going to beat around the bush. This guy is basically a very very sharp thug in a suit with a mind so focused on the avaition sector. He has a deep knowledge of how unions operate and thinks 10 moves ahead. It'll be an interesting year ahead and I reckon he'll go for the untouchables first to set the tone. ;)

Bearcat - i suspect you are right in your comments.

WW has not been brought in for any other reason than drive the cost base down - that's what the City has been pushing for the past four years.

Whilst not a shareholder, I look forward to seeing how he's going to tackle the overburdening in so many departments within the old establishment.

Long live WW...long overdue.

SW

I believe the funds Spearing refers to were reserved for lease payments, no?

Just out of interest, what's his flying background?

I reckon that MOL isn't really worried anymore about WW. Ryanair have moved ahead of BA in the area they concentrate on - short-haul. MOL has a business plan and he is sticking to it.

BA also have the T5 move to contend with and as previously mentioned have to look at replacing some of their fleet (I'd put money on them concentrating on Airbus rather than Boeing - that just an educated guess though). There is also the small matter of what to do with all the non-core business - if Dublin is anything to go by there will be lots of staff with new employers.

Before he took over at Aer Lingus didn't he run Futura when it was a subsidary of AL ? I know it was sold off subsequently - but was that when he was Chief Exec ?

Also a couple of months ago there was plenty of talk in the Irish papers about WW starting up a long-haul carrier based on the LoCo model. Don't know how much of it is true - but if there is any truth in the rumour - what could he do with BA long-haul ?

And now he also has real shareholders (not just politicians) to contend with...

I don't know how much he is being paid but I reckon he'll have his work cut out.

Highwayman

WW was a cadet pilot in Aer Lingus joining at 17 years of age in 1979 (he had his 18th Birthday a week after starting his course) He returned to EI in late 1980, and as there were no flying jobs, he worked in the office until ( along with his course colleagues) until early Summer 1981, then trained onto the 737, which he then flew for quite anumber of years.

H

Pehaps he may be the first to sort out the cabin crew ,bus drivers
and loaders ,in which case the airline will shut down. Start again monday with virgin cabin crew.

Is it true he is related to 'Tommy Walsh', if so can we expect to see a break out of decking at Terminal 5 and Waterworld.

I read somewhere that his salary is circa £584,000 p.a. on par with that paid to RE.

Overall I think RE has done a fair job given the list of disasters that have befallen the aviation world during his tenure.

The time is now approaching where the dinosaur unions, the overmanning and the archaic working practises have to be tackled.

It will probably be ugly but if it finally makes BA into the lean and fit airline it really should be.....

Heck I might even start receiving dividends again!

And what does everyone think he will do with BACX?

Sell us? That would remove BA completely from everywhere regional.

Invest more money? Maybe a remodelled GO?

Go back to the Franchising model? A management buy-out. Uh Oh, I realised I just used the 'M' word in connection with our leaders, sorry, I'll go wash my mouth out with soap!:yuk:

One things for sure, he can't cut much more unless he wants the patient to die on the operating table.....now there's a cheery thought.:}

First thing he needs to do is to make everyone very sure that they are accountable - what better way than to show Mike Street the door...

Anyone know if WW joined the Board and other hi-rankers in today's round trip of the UK?

Waterside and BAMC down in South Wales - maybe RE's last 'Walkabout' before going down under!

Can't wait for the bloodbath - should have happened 30 years ago. There's too many people in this airline working for nothing!!

Which is paltry compared to that which other FTSE100 CEs are paid and what O'Leary's stock options must have been worth recently.

Hi,Dubxh et al
I'm not bitter.I still have a job and our division, engineering, is expanding as the fleet grows....A lot of what has been cut in EI was making money, such as the cargo carrying. It made no sense to cut it when the aircraft still flew, regardless of their contents.Some departments were slashed and the negative effect is still affecting the day-to-day operation. Far more people wanted to leave than were allowed, especially of high-service people, who were fed up and wanted out. So the legacy of that is bitterness, bad customer relations and a negative public attitude to the company. Some of the cuts were stupid...the Dublin ramp bus fleet was cut from six to two, allegedly to reduce driver/diesel/maintenace costs. This meant that more expensive pier stands have to be used, instead of remote stands, so the costs go up instead of down....The simulators were sold(B737 x 2), a set-up which made a steady income and owed nothing.i appreciate that these are compratively minor things, in the great scheme of things, but why slash something that works, makes money and doesn't affect the daily operation?? Willie didn't really hurt the EI pilots as much as he hurt other departments, which has bred resentment. In the same breath, he didn't give in to all their demands....as for the assertion that EI was squirting money away, nothing could be further than the truth. EI has been making a lot of money for a long time, even before WW took over. The previous rationalisation plans were having an effect. We were never in a bad a shape as some people have claimed

TwoDeadDogs

For an engineer you seem to have had a deep insight into the economics of the changes that occured.

Presumably you worked at board level as an engineer?

why is everyone being so $$$$$$ nasty to each other these days .... :confused:

Can I ask a question?
 

I often hear that it would be best if the company just shut down, and then restarted as a new company but without the inefficiencies...

Well who is this best for? Would the shareholders get anything out of this? I suspect they would get very little, and they would not receive any shares in the new company.

If this is true, WW quite simply cannot allow trouble with any union to force this to happen! He is obligated to the shareholders. So everything has to be done softly softly - which means it will take a heck of a long time, which means we will quite likely be irrecoverable by the time it happens... and go bust anyway.

Only then might the new company be formed, but I think we will we have to go through the softly softly approach for many years yet!

GS-A: good summing up up as to why big old companies go bust, rather than going through some kind of transformation. All CEOs say that they want to transform the company but the accrued levels of inefficiency and self interest almost ensures that everyone's interest will be lost.