Willie Walsh, British Airways CEO (pictured), used the opportunity of the airline's introduction of its upgraded long haul business class product, Club World, to call upon the government to move quickly regarding a third runway at Heathrow.
He said that the airport was behind its major competitors in Europe in terms of airport expansion. Mr Walsh also confirmed that last week's 'sale' of loss making BA Connect did include a transfer of funds, but from BA to Flybe. British Airways will emerge from the deal with 15% of Flybe. The arrangement does safeguard jobs, at least for the time being. He also confirmed that the fleet renewal appraisal would take at least seven months. "The A380 is not my problem," he said, without ruling it out for future introduction.
Mr Walsh, speaking both before the new cabin was revealed and at an informal briefing afterwards, was most ardent in his comments regarding Heathrow and its future runway needs. He again urged the government to set out a step-by-step timetable for the introduction of mixed mode runway operations.
"We are slipping behind in terms of infrastructure. We are behind airports such as Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid and Munich in terms of runway capacity. We can't keep slipping further down the league table." Perhaps he had in mind a government progress report due out next month on its airports policy. "We need a third, commuter runway, by 2015."
Mr Walsh candidly tackled a number of subjects raised, including the bilateral arrangements across the north Atlantic: "Nothing is happening at the present time." On climate change he had this to say: "The Stern Report made it clear that action to tackle global warming could go hand-in-hand with continued economic growth," emphasising that airline contribution to emissions was minimal: "What matters is reducing overall emissions around the world". He noted that negotiations over pensions were continuing but nothing had been formalised. "I am not sure whether it will be the end of this month. The timescale of mid-November was one that the trustees indicated and we have said we are happy to work to the timescale," he said.
Subsequently British Airways has also confirmed the purchase of American Airlines' stake in Spanish carrier Iberia. It will now own 10% of the carrier and have two positions on the Board. On the pension front the airline is in negotiation with the unions, with a 10 year funding to tackle its ”2.1bn ($4bn) deficit. The airline will increase its one-off cash injection from ”500m to ”800m ($943m to 1.5bn) and offer to pay up to ”50m ($94m) a year for the next three years subject to the airline”s year-end cash balances remaining above ”1.8bn ($3.4bn) and on staff accepting future benefit changes.
The benefits could include a change in the retirement age, a lower accrual rate, inflation capped pensionable pay increases, capped pension increases on retirement and sharing life expectancy. NAPS will remain a final salary scheme.