Send in Sir Gerry Robinson

I wonder if Mr Walsh was watching another Irish businessman, Sir Gerry Robinson, on television recently. In the programme, Gerry’s Big Decision, a “me-too” business programme of the type first brought to prominence by Sir John Harvey Jones many years ago, Sir Gerry, formerly head of Granada TV and many other leading UK companies, considers investing his own money in a number of companies with problems.

In both the recent examples, the problem was with the present “top dog” of the company. In both, Robinson’s analysis featured remarks like “great product, good workforce, but the management aren’t talking to the staff and there’s just no evidence of any sales activity or ability”.

I was struck by the similarity with British Airways. Whenever I fly BA I ask the crew whether they’ve met Mr Walsh. Most have had him on their aircraft but other than the usual brief discourse between crew and passengers there’s no contact. He boards ahead of other passengers, and buries himself in a newspaper rather than actually talk to the “other ranks”.

This is strange for every senior manager I’ve ever known, in every company with which I’ve worked (and that includes a good few blue-chip companies during my time in television) takes such opportunities to talk direct to the crew, to ask questions and get the views of people at the sharp end without the modification and editorialising that happens when the same information is filtered up through the system.

Why not ask Sir Gerry to have a look at British Airways? He might not have enough money himself (though right now the share value of the airline is nowt) but he has the experience. In a previous television programme, he tackled Britain’s NHS so taking on British Airways needn’t be too big a project. The real problem is that the management of BA is too pig-headed, so utterly convinced it and it alone is right, Gerry Robinson wouldn’t even get through the front door.

Corporal Jones was right, we're doomed.

It is hard not to agree with the accuracy of the charge levelled at the CEO of BA by Unite - that Mr Walsh can hardly be surprised if forward bookings on the airline are a disaster if a disaster is all the CEO spends his time talking about. Quite apart from the charge that his message of doom was actually intended to influence the UK and US governments in favour of his desperate anti-passenger tie-up with American, what has he said recently that would encourage anybody with a few quid to put down for a future flight to book with BA?

My spies in KLM and AF report that business reaction to their recent sales blitz are very encouraging. Their business travellers received them enthusiastically and reaffirmed their commitments to the airlines whenever they travel.

Meanwhile from Manchester Airport more news that confirms the marketing strategy and sales prowess of Mr Walsh are a myth, Emirates is shortly to increase its flights from Manchester to Dubai to three a day. BA flies from Manchester to London and a couple of other European cities.

Of course it was Mr Walsh’s predecessor, R. Eddington, who fired the sales teams but W Walsh has been in command for three years now - plenty of time for a far-seeing CEO (if he was ever but a shadow of one) to have installed and trained new teams.

A sales team means that in tough times you have two choices - sell more seats and increase capacity to meet the need, or reduce capacity to meet the market demand - with the risk that the market finds it can do without you entirely.

Without a sales team Mr Walsh has only one option and having wasted too much time since he was appointed, he’s probably doomed.

If that’s so there’s only one option left and that’s to get rid of the entire management, bring in a CEO with the flair and standing that the banks and money people will trust and put the airline on a business footing once again.