LEX “We are in the worst trading environment the industry has ever faced,” says Willie Walsh, the British Airways boss.
From a captain of an industry that has made a cumulative loss since the dawn of commercial flight, that is a big call. Are conditions really as bad as in the aftermath of September 11 2001? That, surely, was turbulence. Cynics might say his comment was just self-serving hyperbole from a man needing to explain a 92 per cent fall in quarterly earnings per share. That would be unfair. With BA’s fuel costs set to jump 50 per cent this year, the going is tough.
Investors should remember, however, that much of what airline chiefs say in public is aimed at pressuring unions. For Mr Walsh, eyeing savings from a merger with Iberia, ramping up a sense of extreme crisis is a smart tactic.
