Willie Walsh @ BA

[preiffer]

Well, tomorrow morning is Willie's first day as the official CEO of BA.

It seems he's likely to make a big impression from day one... [:0]

15% cuts in workforce?

"Eddington cut 14,000 jobs during his five-year tenure at BA. Walsh, when chief executive of Irish carrier Aer Lingus, cut one-third of the workforce."

Hmmm if it's to be announced tomorrow then all the prep work must have been done, so the decision taken when Rod was boss, though with Willie by his side.

There are also comments by him in the current BBC business news pages, calling some working practices 'completely irrelevant' and that T5 represents an opportunity for change ... so with another £300 m of cost savings targetted guess where most will come from?

[preiffer]

Well, it seems the ft boys are quite excited about an FT article.

In this thread, there are several thoughts on what's included in Willie's "£100m upgrade" to New, New, New Club World...

"I believe NNNCW consists of individual cabins like the current First product. We've given Branson five years to catch up, so now he's invested all his money in the upper class suites it's time to kick him back into touch again."


However, one person was quick to dispell the rumour of a "First-a-like" Business Class cabin:

"I feel I should stop the rumour now.Please do not expect private cabins.The new seats and cabin are exciting.I am sure most people will be very happy when the details are released."


So - should the UCS's be shaking in their ottomans?

It will be fun to see if Willie gets caught up in all the political strife within Waterside. It's quite amusing watching from the sidelines...

I very much doubt that BA would introduce a product that was close to F as this would seriously undermine their F product and unless F is going in the near future, this would not be good for them - or VS;).

Cheers,
VS045

I cannot see F continuing, it has no place these days

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by AlanA
I cannot see F continuing, it has no place these days

Why..on our twoflights last month F was full,thats 14 seats,assuming they were all rev pax that's alot of money,well just checking the BA website it's $15800 for a restricted F ticket,thats $221k,or to put it another way,the operating cost of a 744 is around $10k an hour,so on an 11 hr flight it's costing BA $110k to make $221k just from F.

Now im sure therre were some upgrades etc in there,but it show's that if you have a true F product and can get people in the seats you will make money.

Many airlines have eliminated F from their flights, further reiterating that the "golden days" of air travel are definitely at an end.

Cheers,
VS045

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by VS045
Many airlines have eliminated F from their flights, further reiterating that the "golden days" of air travel are definitely at an end.

Cheers,
VS045

while that is true for a lot of airlines,therer are shall we say "premium airlines"that can still get good loads on their long haul F product..BA and SQ being a couple that come right to my mind.