Oi! Am 39 next month and travel is my passion. But market analysis is my profession and airline activity is linked with economic health and open borders. And no, there’s no way I am getting on a long haul flight for a long time, and I say that as someone in employment. Unemployment is about to hit heights no one alive has seen. That becomes a cycle of cash strapped people not flying even when the virus is gone which may be never. So any return to flying begs the question as to how you turn a profit in this market? Any disposable income is likely to be new cars or home improvements rather than the pain of the new norm of sterile flying.

My point is you can’t return to profit in that market and there may be no roadmap to doing so. Hence, you either let IAG run out of money, which they will sooner or later, or the state steps in and saves what’s needed to rebuild in the medium term. But in my view, no commercial entity like IAG can wait that long. It’s not that I don’t want BA to be a profitable commercial employer, I do. But I think the return to profitability just isn’t there in any time period that they can survive.