07 January 2009

BA: "Only through delivering fundamental changes"

BA has started to deliver a series of messages about just how dire the situation is at the carrier and for their part of the industry in general. In the latest edition of BA’s staff newspaper CFO, Keith Williams, warned further restructuring was required to cope with the downturn. Its not a "may" it's a "when".

The airline has already axed 450 of its 1,400 managers and Williams said the latest shake-up would be ‘far-reaching, reshaping our company from top to bottom’. This puts Willie Walsh's job on the line and ups the stakes for the current management team. With BA's comparative performance against its peer legacy competitors down throughout 2008, and decidedly poor when compared to the LCC community - only radical change will do, the shareholders deserve nothing less.

Williams added: ‘Only through delivering fundamental changes can we achieve the small profit we are targeting this year and emerge from the crisis as a strong global player.’ Clearly BA has a low opinion of itself - perhaps right if we look at the progress in comparison to LH's global expansion. for the CFO of BA to openly state this is an admission perhaps of how far BA has fallen behind and needs to catch up.

I hope the boys and girls at Waterside are paying attention. Business as usual is not an option

Cheers

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