British Airways is not a flag carrier, though it enjoys many of the privileges of being one. For example, it controls 51% of the slots at Heathrow, the airport with the most expensive slots in the entire world. Those slots weren’t purchased, they were gifts from the government during many years of anti competitive protection, before BA emerged as a privatized airline.
In comparison to every other global private airline around the world, British Airways has used the public health crisis as an instrument to go above and beyond what’s necessary to survive with planned staff cuts, arguably settling decades old scores to reduce employee pay to subsistence levels, and that’s only after they fire everyone and demand anyone wishing to be rehired agree to the ghastly terms.
Weeks back, View From The Wing suggested one instrument to ensure fair and equitable terms for British Airways staff reduction and restructuring plans, was to take away their “free” slots, which were never bought or earned, if the airline refused to negotiate without such disdain for the livelihoods of its own people.
Apparently, the idea is catching on. Should it?
Huw Merriman, Transportation Secretary for Parliament, recently floated the idea in a session of parliament. It’s awfully funny for British Airways to complain about competition from airlines in the Middle East and abroad when it specifically benefited from decades of anti competition protections, not to mention decades of public funding, albeit under a slightly different moniker.
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