Press speculation about the future of British Airways, and a typically rumbustious intervention from Sir Richard Branson, caused BA's shares to crash more than 8 per cent this week. BA's ballooning pension deficit remains a key worry - it is expected to hit at least £3bn by the time of the next valuation, and the scale of the deficit remains a key barrier to a potentially life-saving tie-up with Spain's flag-carrier Iberia.
And, as has been well documented, unions and staff are upset by BA chief Willie Walsh's proposals that they work for free for a limited time this summer, a fact not lost on the ever-opportunistic Virgin, which responded by offering its own staff a "birthday bonus" to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Virgin chief Branson, also suggested that BA, with its bloated cost base and heavily unionised workforce, would struggle to survive the recession and was "not worth much any more". He called for flag carriers not to be bailed out, although BA claimed not to be seeking any government aid.
Not that Virgin is exactly coining it. The airline made much of its recent results, which , but documents lodged at Companies House show that the bulk of of this - a staggering £43.5m - was down to interest earned on bank deposits, rather than profit from operations.
