[VintageKrug]

Golly, people on this forum do take life very seriously, don’t they!

Some of these responses are laughable.

[superchris]

VK. I strongly disagree, but of course you are welcome to your opinion.

Airlines complain that they are not given respect within the business community yet at the first opportunity resort to stupidity such as this.

[HonestCrew]

I didn’t know S&M was illegal. Learn something new everyday ….

AND @ Hippocampus
(“HonestCrew owes a huge gratitude to Willie Walsh for restructuring BA into a leaner and fitter carrier that can now pursue profitable expansion with a vigour not seen for decades.”)

I owe Willie Walsh NOTHING. Any businessman could have restructured BA, but the WAY he did it, deliberately confrontational from the very start ,giving no chance of an amicable solution,not giving two hoots about the loyal, hard working staff, then turning department against department has left BA internally with a bitter taste, employees feeling worthless and unappreciated and morale unbelievably low.
Only those with their heads in the sand believe customers have benefited from his way of doing things. On board product reduced to such poor levels that his cuts had to be reversed to counter all the complaints and the cheapening of the role of cabin crew is now at such a level that the BA recruitment team, who were struggling to attract quality people with such a poor job package on offer, were told to lower their standards to such a level it had the team literally saying “they will have to do because we can’t attract anyone with customer service skills to come to BA any more.”
(I am with a recruiter on my current trip, her words not mine and she is BA through and through!)

..and don’t get me started on the ridiculous safety and emergency cock-ups that have happened since these miraculous cost saving crew were brought in!)

The sooner Walsh’s connection with BA is deleted the better. Only then can we start to make BA employees feel like one team again which will really improve things for customers too!

..and getting back to the point, I am sure his remarks were mean’t as light-hearted but still it doesn’t sound great and leaves RB smelling of roses.

[canucklad]

Papillion….oh yes, just call me Peter Pan

Honest crew…..Suspect WW will bruise it out with the Iberia staff too!

Superchris…..sometimes any publicity is good publicity!! As far as their responsibility to the British economy, and specifically the aviation industry, I’m afraid our politicians are doing more damage than these 2 school boys.

I was very impressed with Wee Willie and his performance with the parliamentary committee …..A shame that he will be proven right with his predication that 10 years from now, we will still be where we are now!!

[Tom Otley]

Just to provide a little context to this, since I was there…

This was in a press conference with the media in Seoul.

Walsh had expressed his opinion a couple of days before that if the Delta deal went ahead, he couldn’t see Delta wanting the Virgin brand long term.

In reply, Branson bet him a million pounds that it would be around in five years, and so Walsh was asked by the journalists would he be taking up the bet?

In the press conference Walsh said, firstly, he hadn’t read what Branson had said. When pressed, he said, obviously, no, he wouldn’t be taking the bet because he didn’t have a spare million. He wanted to show he stuck by his prediction however, and so searched for some kind of alternative. What came to mind was something we had been talking about the previous day.

It was an interview Richard Quest of CNN had conducted with Rob Fyfe, the outgoing CEO of Air New Zealand. One bit of it had struck Walsh as funny because of its incongruity (and also how it’s impossible to prepare for the questions you are asked by journalists).

This is the transcript:

QUEST: Your decision to get into bed with Cathay Pacific for China and that part of Asia, come on; you just stuck your knee into the groin of Star Alliance arrangements with that.

FYFE: No, I wouldn’t use that term…

I know for sure that’s what Walsh was thinking about, because when I tried to bring the press conference back to the subject of the configuration of the A380 and B787 (which is why we were there), he said the thought had occurred to him because of the previous conversation about Fyfe and Quest.

[FormerlyDoS]

“Some of these responses are laughable.”

But as you have pointed out on a number of occasions, this is an entertainment forum.

Anyway, none of the responses are as laughable as a CEO who c*cks up to this degree in public by making himself open to ridicule in the media.

[Binman62]

SiteAdministrator- 12/12/2012 18:06 GMT
This was in a press conference with the media in Seoul.

Even more reason to have avoided the terminology. The Koreans have a view of Britain, albeit perhaps a little outdated and misguided. They see it as a civilised and gentlemanly culture and WW comments were anything but.

VintageKrug- 12/12/2012 14:34 GMT
Golly, people on this forum do take life very seriously, don’t they!
Pot, kettle,black……….but one should not be surprised at the defence of the indefensible

[Henkel.Trocken]

Well said HonestCrew!

There are always a number of ways of doing things to achieve similar outcomes. What I never understood was why after creating a blood bath at Aer Lingus, anyone in the right mind thought Walsh was a suitable candidate to run BA.

IMO and I know others will disagree, time has proved me right.

[JohnHarper]

Disgraceful behaviour by Walsh who looks like he may regret his challenge. I think VS will be around a lot longer than five years after their new agreement with Delta.

I wonder if there will be a charity auction for the tickets to watch. I’ll bid.

[Author]

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