Word: carriers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...they may be, risk overshadowing the real progress that the 45-year-old Dubliner has made at BA since taking over in 2005 as its youngest-ever boss. Adjusting to the scale of the challenge of running Europe's third-largest airline after four years as boss of Irish carrier Aer Lingus "was easy," says Walsh. "I just multiplied everything by 10." Not all of BA's bigger numbers meant better. When he arrived, the company's pension fund was short of almost $3 billion, more than the shortfall at any other major British firm. And payroll...
...size. On his first Monday in the BA job, he set about reaching a deal with trade unions to rub out the pension deficit over the next decade through one-off cash injections and changes to employee benefits. Two months later, "Slasher" - as Walsh was known at the Irish carrier for culling a third of its staff while rescuing it from the brink - went to work on BA's head count. Hundreds of senior managers got the boot. Soon afterward, he unveiled a blueprint for shrinking BA's costs by close to $1 billion, partly through further job cuts. With...
...team first contacted the OFT about the scheming once it got wind of it, should escape any fine as a result.) Still, it's hardly reassuring that staff at BA thought it a smart idea to collude with its fiercest rival. Is there a problem with values at the carrier? "That wasn't anything that was in the dna" of the company, says Walsh. "I've stressed this significantly at every opportunity internally: we're not going to tolerate that sort of behavior...
Another summer, another headache for British Airways. Staff shortages forced the carrier to ground flights in mid-2004, a strike a year later cost the airline millions in lost revenues, and last August's terrorist alert brought security gridlock to its Heathrow hub. The sting this season: huge fines for anti-competitive behavior...
...maintained its "buy" rating on BA stock in a research note, and another London-based airline analyst said the fine left BA's outlook "unchanged." But it's been a turbulent year for Britain's largest carrier. The specter earlier this year of cabin crew strikes, though eventually averted, triggered mass passenger cancellations and diluted the airline's results. Operating profit in the year to April slid 13%. The airline insists it's not been helped by tough security measures still in place at U.K. airports, where passengers are limited to one item of hand luggage and have...