Sir, The FT frequently carries comment on British Airways performance problems. Sometime over the next 24 hours matters may worsen when we announce a strike ballot result by BA pilots (the last such strike was nearly 30 years ago). This is not the place any pilot or their association wants to be; we would far rather be tackling the operational problems that daily frustrate the hell out of BA pilots.
The matter in dispute is how BA expands with a new subsidiary called OpenSkies. Put simply: will we expand, as the British Airline Pilots’ Association wishes, with pilots recruited to the same BA-established standards and with the flexibility to move between the BA family of airlines, or will we be rigidly hidebound by separate standards with individual pilots “locked in”?
The dispute is not about terms and conditions – we have guaranteed a “start-up” cost base that meets what we are told is the business plan, and to give the company certainty and predictability on these as the airline develops. But BA walked away from talks and shows every sign of digging in for a fight.
This is complete madness when you consider that creativity by pilots and management, working in partnership, solved the pension crisis at BA and generated changes to working practices that have improved reliability. These were models of industrial relations behaviour to which we aspire.
All of this is being done on the basis of OpenSkies which, flying from Paris and Brussels to the US, is seen by a growing number as a dubious business decision in the current market. To put BA at risk because of it seems ludicrous and one could even see a scenario where a dispute throttles bookings, triggers a falling share price and puts BA with its prized, if tarnished, Heathrow base in line for a hostile takeover. This is not where pilots want to be; can it really be where the BA board wants to be?
This is not the first time that, Canute-like, BA has tried to ride out a rising tide of disquiet about a business decision apparently set in stone by a chief executive – repainting tail-fins, for instance. It is not too late to avoid a repeat, if there is the humility to recognise it.
Jim McAuslan,
General Secretary,
British Airline Pilots' Association,
West Drayton, Middx UB7 0DQ