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British Airways Is Losing Money Again. I Blame Willie

November 7, 2009

British Airways R.F.Wilson writes: Before I analyse the situation that the world’s favourite airline, British Airways, has found itself in, I would like to ask you this: is it proper that a huge company is run by a man who calls himself Willie? This is a serious matter, by the way, for I would have numerous reservations about the judgement of a top executive who has decided to operate under the name of Willie.

Mr Willie Walsh could have at least chosen some other first name, and even Francis or Cicero would have sounded better, to be quite honest. Tony as a first name I would not recommend, as it has been seriously tarnished by a number of criminal godfathers and the previous British Prime Minister Blair. Barack, of course, would be very good, considering the presence of the current President in the White House, but unfortunately his popularity is falling and who knows what could happen next year. But, in any case, the name Willie just simply does not go well with a top job in big business.

And now that we have dealt with this crucial matter we can turn to the more serious issue of British Airways suffering one of its most serious losses in its history as a private company. According to its results for the third quarter of 2009 BA has lost £292 million, a time when it should have been making money. Last year, by the way, it made a profit of £52 million in the same period. To make matters worse, the company is shedding 1200 jobs and is involved in a dispute that threatens a walk out by cabin staff later this year.

And this where I turn the spotlight once again on Willie Walsh, BA’s chief executive and pose a question: would a man with a name like Bartholomew or Malcolm would have allowed BA to get itself into such turbulence? In a financial and commercial sense, that is? Of course not, although I do know of a certain Adam and Michael who have proven to be very effective in causing a lot of problems for the once prosperous Royal Mail and the commercial television company ITV.

In any case, despite his name Mr Walsh has proven to be a tough cookie in clinging to his job, though. For some unexplained reason he has managed to convince everyone that things could have been much, much worse and it was only due to his administrative talents and unlimited energy that a total meltdown was averted. It is a bit like the captain of the Titanic claiming that were it not for his prompt actions the giant ship could have gone down even quicker.
The only explanation I can find is that Mr Walsh is a member of the Indestructibles, the mighty superheroes of the business world who preside over the slow death of their respective companies, but stay on regardless. The buck never stop with the Indestructibles. It is never their fault that their companies don’t perform well. Shit happens, is their secret motto, so why should we be held responsible? Why indeed, when the only people who pay the price for their incompetence are their employees and their long suffering customers.
– End –

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