Bay Capital Share Discussion Threads

[alphorn] 06/10/2010 08:59

Adjusted strike prices; remain short. Still looking strong :(

[maximillian1] 06/10/2010 08:24

Anon

The time has arrived..have made my decision and and acted on it..soon know if you are right or , I am..

[selborne_edge] 06/10/2010 08:14

All very good news except of course when the words UNITE and BASSA are mentioned. Lets hope that the UK strike laws will be strengthened to sort out this disafected bunch.

[standish11] 05/10/2010 16:46

The strong rise today is due to the release of Sept traffic figures.First and Business Class particularly encouraging.

[selborne_edge] 05/10/2010 16:40

A magnificent rise in the share price It must be connected with the approval by Iberia of the arrangements that BA have made to remedy the 'pension black hole'

[factsonly] 04/10/2010 22:15

225p could be the time then

[alphorn] 04/10/2010 09:49

Yep, still short; waiting to get out.

[factsonly] 04/10/2010 08:53

My word Alporn - you are still here trading on BAY after all these years.

[alphorn] 03/10/2010 22:51

F - agree with your first view ;-)

[factsonly] 03/10/2010 08:51

Anyone else here think BAY will retrace back to 225p in the coming weeks before bouncing up again?

[anony mous] 28/9/2010 22:31

long article, but worth reading....


Willie Walsh's blueprint to beat BA strikes

The British Airways chief executive, Willie Walsh, says he is 'working on a plan' to counter threatened cabin crew action.

Standing on the sun-drenched asphalt, just a few hundred yards from the gleaming edifice that is Heathrow Terminal Five, Willie Walsh beamed for the cameras as if he had not a care in the world.
Flanked by Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel – who is launching British Airways' Boeing 777-300ER jet before its maiden flight to Mumbai - BA's Dublin-born chief executive wasn't phased by the giant garland or sizeable bindi red dot that adorned the plane behind him.
Unsurprising really, given the year that he's had. Were he more regal, Walsh would readily admit 2010 has been, in large part, an annus horribilis. Strike threat followed by volcanic ash cloud followed by strike.
And now, BA's cabin crew are again on the strike path, just two months before BA shareholders vote on ending the airline's independence by merging with Spain's Iberia – a deal which could crown the Irishman's five-year reign at the airline's helm and brighten his dismal year in which the luck of the Irish has not been his.
For Walsh, however, it is nothing new. Having faced widespread industrial unrest at Aer Lingus earlier in his career, and spent the past 18 months negotiating changes to the way BA staffs its cabins, the vocal chief executive is ready for the fight.
"I'm not worried at all," he admits when asked if he's concerned this winter may be punctuated by industrial action. "I hope we don't [have a strike] and I'm working to make sure we've got plans to counter that."
From his perspective, it's all about economics. Reducing the number of cabin crew that fly a plane by one person per plane will save BA £60m a year.
And although BA has not released estimates on how much it will save as a result of its more radical and contentious plan – to gradually hire new crew members on cheaper contracts – the numbers are sizeable.
Senior crew based at London Heathrow on old-style contracts are paid £50,000-a-year on average. Under the new plans, senior members of the so-called mixed fleet crew – who will fly to both long and short haul destinations – will be paid £35,000.
The first of the new crews – which importantly won't mix with the old crews in order to avoid further unrest – will begin work on November 1, with 1,000 set to have been recruited by the end of next year.
Within 10 years, some 4,500 mixed fleet crew will be working for BA, equivalent to 40pc of the airline's total cabin crew.
"The issue is that [the people who are planning to strike are] . . . out of touch with the real world. They need to embrace the need for change," he argues, before pointing out the global airline industry has been through a "brutal period".
His anger is focused not on Unite, the trade union which tomorrow is scheduled to have a meeting to discuss a further strike ballot, but rather upon BASSA, the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association, a small branch of the union of which 12,000 of BA's 13,500 cabin crew are members.
"I don't believe Unite wants to," strike," argues Walsh. "I don't believe Tony Woodley [Unite's joint general secretary] wants to.
"I've called Unite a dysfunctional trade union. It's far from united. BASSA is out of touch and out of sync with the rest of the airline."
He points to the thousands of regular, non-flying BA employees who each spent four weeks training as temporary cabin crew to allow BA to fly a full long-haul service during the May strike.
Support for the strike came from 3,400 BASSA members, 1,700 voted against, while the rest abstained.
"It demonstrates that the vast majority of cabin crew don't want BA to be damaged. And I will not allow trade unions to run this business," he said.
The proposed strike may be the least of his worries, however, given growing concerns over the global economy and the prospect of a double-dip in the US – BA's most important market.
He says internal data gives a more positive message, with BA's cargo and premium passenger services holding up well.
"When I listen to others talk about the state of the economy, I'm concerned about the prospects. But we're not seeing this. We see no evidence to support [a double dip]."
Even on the vital transatlantic routes, which accounts for 50pc of sales and more than half of profits, Walsh is positive: "It's not shaky."
But BA did report a pre-tax loss of £164m for the three months to the end of June after booking £150m for the May strike and a £100m hit from the chaos caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.
Asked to consider how the airline is doing financially in walking terms, he smiles: "We're not crawling or jogging; I think it's a steady walk."
A good example he says of BA's apparent resilience is in the Indian market, as well as the Middle East, where it continues to see a lot of cargo demand.
And although the flight out to Mumbai was largely empty – the Indian-London business season does not begin until mid-September – return flights are currently said to be fully-booked with British and European Indians returning home after a long summer.
BA first flew to India in 1929 when the journey took seven days and two planes, a train, and a flying boat – and 20 different stop-offs – to get from Croydon to Karachi.
Today – with India the airline's largest foreign market outside North America – it takes nine hours and five minutes to get from Heathrow to Mumbai, with the 777-300 ER emitting 23pc less carbon dioxide than the standard 747.
Aboard the plane, Walsh is in his element. "It's a fantastic machine. When I started flying on a 737-200 they had 12,000lbs of thrust. But these," he says, gesturing towards the giant General Electric-built engines, "are 10 times that".
It's a reminder that for all that he is a corporate executive, he started out as an Aer Lingus pilot 31 years' ago, aged 17.
He was recently invited by BA's chief 737 pilot to fly the airline's 737 flight simulator.
"At first, I couldn't work out if it was a request or a challenge," admits Walsh who hasn't flown for 13 years. "But it was like riding a bike," he says, adding that, virtually, he "did a couple of circuits of Gatwick, then on to the old Hong Kong airport and then on to Nice" before landing.
His next challenge – charting the company's proposed merger – may not prove to be as simple.
Iberia has until the end of September to confirm that it is happy with the state of BA's £3.7bn pension deficit, after which both companies will publish their interim results at the end of October, followed by a series of votes to enact the merger.
If all goes to plan, the two airlines will merge to form the blandly titled International Airlines Group (IAG) by the end of the year.
Walsh will be elevated to become chief executive of the entire venture with Iberia's chairman, Antonio Vazquez, taking the chairman seat in a diplomatic series of moves.
Keith Williams, BA's long-standing chief financial officer, will take control of BA.
Walsh – who vows he will be based in a building close to BA's Waterside headquarters on the edge of Heathrow, and not in Madrid – sees the new role as a continuation of what he has been doing.
"I'm not moving anywhere. I'm moving up, not moving on."
And when asked if he's learnt Spanish he says: "My English is very good."
IAG will be structured in such a way that each airline will technically be majority-owned in its country of residence, to allow vital domestic slots to be kept where necessary.
But in spite of the complex structure – based to a degree on the one KLM and Air France used for their merger – the format will allow other airlines to be more easily slotted in to the profile in the future. These may include American Airlines, now in the final stages of a partnership deal with BA.
One of the other plus-points will be to allow each airline to spread flights throughout the day, with possible half-hourly take-offs on the busy New York-London route.
Although nowhere near as formal as the Iberia merger, the AA tie-up will similarly ensure each airline keeps its distinctive brands and product offerings, something Walsh doesn't think will confuse passengers, be they BA, Iberia or AA regulars.
"The business traveller [in particular] understands the products. We're not going to pretend the products are the same.
"It's their choice and that's the beauty of it," he says.

[zangdook] 27/9/2010 14:02

They won't get in for a while. They've done the usual - choose the wrong candidate after an election defeat. Michael Foot (too left and odd-looking), William Hague (too young and odd-looking), Ed Militant (too left and young and odd-looking). Not that there was much to choose between the candidates imo.

[anony mous] 27/9/2010 13:57

unions voted in Ed Milliband.
so, labour now run by unions.

If labour ever get in (in future), we can say goodbye to BA and other union infested companies.

[anony mous] 23/9/2010 11:15

Iberia merger is all go.

[anony mous] 17/9/2010 09:54

MAX
stop editing your posts !
we not always right calling this, but med/long term these will be much much higher.

[anony mous] 13/9/2010 16:15

13 Sept 2010
British Airways: Heathrow Customer Service OK New Working Practices

British Airways PLC (BAY.lN) said Monday that Heathrow customer service staff have voted to accept new working practices, agreed with the Unite and GMB trade unions.

[anony mous] 13/9/2010 13:21

alot has changed since last year
;~/

[anony mous] 10/9/2010 10:07

MAX
heading for 2.40+, ranging to about 2.85-3.00 short term.
are you back from your luxury break ?