Recent problems with the new T5 Terminal at Heathrow have resulted in more problems for BA when will they recover their No1 position.

BA strike: Ban lifted by High Court

Fresh BA strikes look set to go ahead after a panel of senior judges, including the Lord Chief Justice, overturned a ban on industrial action.

BA posts record 531m loss


British Airways woes continue as the strike-bound airline has posted a record loss before tax of 531m for the year to 31 March 2010 ( 2009 Loss 401m).

Revenue was down 1 billion to 7,994m (2009: 8,992m) and although fuel costs were 597m lower and other operating costs were down 390m, this was a second consecutive year of record losses.

Group revenue in Q 4 was down 4.7 per cent to just under 1.9bn with operating costs down 11.4 per cent to 2bn. This resulted in an operating loss for the quarter of 145m, an improvement of 164m from quarter 4 in the previous year.

I guess Derek is on twitter :-)

British Airways, Unite Enter Latest Round Of Talks
By Kaveri Niththyananthan

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON (Dow Jones)

British Airways PLC (BAY.LN) and Unite, the union representing cabin crew, resumed talks Friday in their latest attempt to come to an agreement and end strikes that have hit the U.K. airline.

Derek Simpson, Unite's joint general secretary will be negotiating on behalf of cabin crew but BA declined to comment on whether its Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh would be taking part.

Discussions are taking place at a secret location to avoid a repeat of last weekend's events, when protesters stormed a building and forced both sides to shelve talks.

BA and Unite have been in dispute for 15 months over changes to working practices and tensions flared recently after the carrier removed travel perks for those cabin crew who joined the picket lines. Cabin crew Friday entered the final day of the first of three planned five-day stoppages.

had an interesting chat with the cabin steward on my last flight ...... inter alia, though he would not strike, he knew that it was quite possible that he would be personally targetted (at home) for abuse ..... he also said that though staff did not have to join the union, it was quite difficult not to, not least because when you join BA there are swathes of paper to be signed, and in this instance, (i'ld guess) you probably have to actively opt out

bet he was queer as well want he :-)

I thought Cameron and his gang were going to sort this little problem out.

Where is this strong government going?

Why should Cameron interfere in the running of a private sector company, does he want to make a fool of himself like Obama has by interferring with insulting remarks about BP and its management.

British Airways Gets EU Approval For Transatlantic Joint Business

Today : Wednesday 14 July 2010
British Airways PLC (BAY.LN) said Wednesday it along with American Airlines and Iberia have received final regulatory approval from the European Commission Wednesday to enter into a joint business agreement on transatlantic flights.

MAIN FACTS:

-The airlines anticipate that they will receive the final decision on transatlantic anti-trust immunity from the U.S. Department of Transportation shortly.

-All the three airlines have agreed to make available Heathrow slot pairs for their competitors to use on services to the U.S.; The slot commitments provide a further guarantee that there will be no possible loss of competition as a result of the joint business.

-The slots will be made available if competitor airlines are unable to acquire them through the normal process; The London-New York slots will only have to be made available if the number of services on the route drops below the currently announced levels.

-The airlines plan to launch the transatlantic joint business this autumn.

Unite plans to take BA to court over travel concessions

The Unite union says it is planning legal action against British Airways over the removal of travel concessions from cabin crew who went on strike.

Unite, which represents 11,000 cabin crew at the airline, said the management's action was a breach of European Human rights legislation.

It also believes the concessions were withdrawn without proper disciplinary procedures being followed.

The move follows the union's rejection last week of BA's "final" offer.

BA said it had acted properly in withdrawing the benefit.

"Staff travel is a non-contractual perk that the company can withdraw at its discretion," the firm said in a statement.

Interim Results.

Period highlights:



Profit before tax of 158 million (2009: loss of 292 million)

Revenue up 345 million due to improved yields

Costs down 1.5 per cent

Operating profit of 298 million (2009: loss of 111 million)

Quarter 2 operating profit of 370 million (2009: loss of 17 million)

Shares will de-list on Friday January 21st and shares in the new IAG (International Airline Group) starting trading in London and Madrid on 24th Jan (Monday). The total share count will increase from 1.1527bn BA shares currently (1.3389bn fully-diluted to account for existing convertible) to c.1.8559bn IAG shares (2.0411bn fully-diluted) based on the share exchange ratio and the cancellation of existing cross-holdings in each other. Market cap will therefore increase from 3.3bn at the current share price of 2.86 to 5.3bn, an increase of c.60%.
This will have an impact on IAGs weighting oin the FTSE 100 and the FTSE All Share. We expect BA (IAG) weighting would increase by 13bps (FTSE 100) and 11bps (FTSE All Share) triggering a total of approx 40mm shares to be bought passively, 4.5x its current ADV, or 6.4x the 20 day ADV.
As IAG will be listed in Madrid it is likely IBEX will keep the stock in its index so we could see additional buy of 11.4m of BAs shares from IBEX passive trackers.

Broker comment:
We still have over a week before the event, but British Airways are to have an indexing upweight in the FTSE100, post the merger with Iberia, when they become Intl Consolidated Airlines (IAG).

Timetable of events:
Friday 21st Jan 2011 - Brit Airways & Iberia suspended from trading for entire day.

Monday 24th Jan 2011 (mkt open) - Brit Airways will be replaced by IAG on a 1 for 1 basis in the FTSE100.

Monday 24th Jan 2011 (mkt close) - IAG's weighting will increase to reflect the new shs. BA's weighting within the all share rises to 29bp's from 17bp's. We think this equates to between 50mln & 70mln shs to be purchased in and around the event.