You just have to admire Willie Walsh, Chief Executive of British Airways. Not only is he hanging tough against striking cabin crew, Mr Walsh now suggests the airline will undertake further expansions out of Madrid, once its merger with Spanish airline Iberia is completed.
This is a brilliant exploitation of the failures of not one but two national governments. On the one hand, the British government’s nixing of any airport expansions in the southeast forces BA to look elsewhere for growth. On the other hand, the Spanish government’s complicity in the nation’s construction boom that has left it in such dire financial straits means there’s an airport in Madrid with serious over-capacity.
Flexible, imaginative, decisive – just what a good business should be. Even at the risk of losing such a fine entrepreneur, isn’t there some role for Mr Walsh in the new UK government?
