When John (now Lord) King arrived in 1981 to prepare loss-making State carrier British Airways for privatization, he told senior managers: "You will all leave before I do."

A single sentence indicated in which direction the new wind would be blowing.

Rod Eddington, appointed six months ago to succeed Robert Ayling in BA's left-hand seat, is more conciliatory. Following the airline's first post-privatization loss, he appears to have adopted a well-known internal BA slogan: "putting people first."

He has told financial analysts that employees will be the first to hear of the changes that he proposes to put the ailing carrier back on its feet, possibly in the next few days.

Perhaps he has no choice but to be radical, as BA attempts to offset the impact of high fuel prices and arrest a recent slide in share price.

Eddington will continue Ayling's policy of reducing discounted economy-class traffic and wants to match the fleet to a rationalized network. Now that a link-up with KLM has failed for the second time in 10 years (see related story), Eddington wants to make the most efficient use of BA's two London bases at Heathrow and Gatwick: "We have to challenge the way these two work together."

He is evaluating the contribution of services from Birmingham and Manchester. Loss-making routes will be dropped unless they make significant contribution to yield from connecting long-haul passengers.

BA's chief executive acknowledges the need for a second European hub, such as Amsterdam Schiphol would have provided through KLM, since the carrier is constrained by airport capacity at Heathrow and ultimately at Gatwick. But he is adamant that considerations of an alternative European alliance must not interfere with the core business: "We cannot allow more management time to be spent on partnership opportunities in the short term."

Eddington said revenue remains robust and strong, but he concedes that high fuel prices have accounted for large chunks of revenue.

He refused to add to speculation about the future of low-cost subsidiary airline Go, which is increasingly seen as internal competition: "The first people to hear should be the employees. We must decide where [Go] fits, if at all." The same is true for BA's franchise partners, where "you might see changes in the short term."

BA's primary consideration is to rationalize its routes and fleet. Eddington hopes to cut capacity by 10% over the next two years: "We have the biggest widebody fleet in Europe, but the most constrained hub." He is "taking a long hard look at what a profitable network looks like and then what capacity is needed. We should not start with what aircraft we already have. Do not take the present BA fleet as a given."

For what it's worth, this AeroWorldNet commentator would not be surprised to see: board changes; reductions in headquarters and overseas office jobs and costs; large cutbacks in European and domestic services; rationalization of London operations, releasing slots for long-haul services; and sale of Go to the highest bidder.

Eddington concludes that he must act sooner rather than later. "Clearly, given our operating performance, we can't go on as we are. There will be changes to routes and to equipment from now on. We cannot jump, but there will be no sacred cows in the route network. We cannot have a steady-as-she-goes view of the world. There will be fine-tuning and there will be at least one major initiative. There will be many changes in the short term, so watch this space," he told the financial analysts.