It now seems that the chief executive of British Airways said that the union strike threats would not deflect him from further cost cuts that have to be made. The company just recently unveiled that it has a record half year loss of £292 million.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, went on to ask the 14,000 cabin crew members to step back from their threatened pre-Christmas industrial action. He said that the further cost reduction is very essential for the airline as a whole, as it is facing a £1 billion drop in revenue.

Walsh noted that the strike would not change the new changes that will be coming to the cabin crew as of November 16^th, because the carrier has no other choice. He continued by saying that he is not going to stop managing the business to meet the challenges that the company faces. He noted that the strike is irrelevant to him, and what has to be done is going to be done.

These results are the worst ever for British Airways’ summer trading period. Although Walsh said that there is evidence that things are not getting worse, these cuts still have to be made since the company is still losing money. Some experts seem to think that the cabin crew fails to take notice that, if these cuts are not made, then there will be no company to work for anyway. The finished up by saying that British Airways is not making these cuts just to be mean, they are doing it because it has to be done.

During all of this Walsh did note that he was still very confident on sealing the merger with Spanish carrier Iberia. He noted that giving up on the negotiations after 16 months was not something that he was prepared to do. He said that it would be like giving up on a marathon when a runner was just 100 meters away from the finish line.