Mr Walsh talks to the government

Why does Mr Walsh need to mention that his warnings about the end of BA etc are not just posturing or scaremongering? That sounds like the boy who’s cried wolf before and who’s not taken seriously any more.

Twice now he’s been denied his merger with AA - a merger that would serve nobody but BA and AA and do immeasurable harm to the true interests of passengers.

Could his message of impending doom really be aimed at the governments to whom he’s pleading once again to be allowed to form a cosy cartel which would control up to 65% of the traffic between a host of UK and American cities?

BA’s commercial management is a shambles. As I’ve noted before, Gatwick-New York is axed after 12 months; London-Jeddah re-introduced after a gap of four years. This sort of panic marketing wouldn’t work on a car boot stall and has no place in a modern airline.

Right now Air France/KLM sales teams are blitzing - doubling up tactical sales teams to ensure their regular clients choose their services whenever they can. At the same time BA is cutting, routes, staff, service - because that’s all it can do.

At this moment the smartest thing BA could do would be to hand the entire Heathrow operation over to a handling agency as they’ve done at almost every other airport in the world, and spend the money they’ll save hiring a sales team. Herding people needs no special skill, salesmen are a breed.