British European Airways
ANOTHER favourite that risks losing touch with its world is British Airways. It is no longer the stock market's favourite, for the shares have almost halved in six months, and the best that can be said for this week's figures is that the management has seen trouble coming. I continue to worry that British Airways is running away from its brand. Those Air Zulu tailfins are still with us and a four-ring captain on a transatlantic flight has been schooled to address his pas- sengers, through gritted teeth, as folks. Once, and before they were merged, this used to be two airlines: British Overseas Airways Corporation, which was long-dis- tance and blue-chip, and British European Airways, which was neither. BEA was said to stand for Booze and Eat Afterwards. I would hate to think that it was coming out on top, but British Airways' chairman, who has progressed from being Sir Colin Mar- shall to being Lord Marshall of Knights- bridge, is the last man who would use Euro- pean as a term of abuse. He is a vocal and powerful believer in Europe's single curren- cy and in Britain's need to join. Much was made of his airline's decision to break its old habit of buying Boeing and order Air- buses from the consortium in Europe.
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