Skinflint's City Diary
David Nicolson's renewed promise of no redundancies at British Airways, of which he is chairman, must have made hearts sink at Whitehall. As the ex-management consultant put in to oversee the melding of BEA and BOAC he was supposed to tighten up both overmanned outfits. Yet his early undertaking to sack nobody made the Ministry worry whether they had picked-a tough enough man, and senior civil servants were overheard wondering when would he the time to "put the skids" under Nicolson.
That they have not done so is perhaps an indication of how tough the job is. In many ways BA is pretty efficient it has comparatively good load factors and its nonEuropean side has a high reputation for service. It is however overmanned by a substantial margin, and has recently run into computer problems.
BA's computer problems stem from the fact that Peter Hermon of BOAC gained ascendancy in the merger. An . energetic, able and ambitious man, he made his reputation on IBM equipment. building a large, complex and expensive suite of programmes called 'Boadicea.' This in turn gave IBM a boost since Hermon sold parts of the package to other airlines who of course had to buy IBM to use them on. When the merger came he says he was careful to evaluate the Univac alternative (BEA's equipment for its also successful but lower scale BEACON system) but found it less good value.
Univac, having got most of the airlines not sewn up by IBM (about nineteen at last count), kicked up an unusual public fuss at the time hut failed to reverse the decision despite an allegedly lower tender. It now has the satisfaction of muttering, I told you so. For fourteen airlines have been bludgeoning IBM about inadequacies of their system and the company's failure to live up to its promises. Part of the cause is said to be "reimplementation" transfer from 360 to 370 machines but in any case the row will do the increasingly embattled IBM little good nor will it help the airlines in their hour of stringency.
Which brings me back to the cause for Nicolson's promise of no redundancies. The shuttle service planned two years ago has now started between London and Glasgow. Copied from the US east coast flying bus service, the point is that a flight is guaranteed and planes stand by for overflows. To make it work and cut out the frills, the stewardesses act as clippies collecting fares from the passengers in flight.
Ground crews belonging to APEX, with all the conservatism of a trade union which sees the end to its featherbed existence, instantly :truck, presumably realising that if this convenient service took over on popular routes as it is planned to do. their work will become unnecessary and checking tickets will become an anachronistic waste of time. But such characteristic Luddism merely stops the hands of the clock, it does not stop time. Nicolson's promise stems from the earnest hope that the unions will at least allow natural wastage to look after the surplus. But he is currently not in an expanding business which can absorb extra people. and we have all seen what has happened to Fleet Street which hoped that eventually a modus vivendi could be achieved with hordes of unneeded printers.
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