Flying Nicolson's Way

As the much-traveled chairman of a worldwide consulting firm, David Nicolson was so often exasperated by delays on British Overseas Airways Corp. and British European Airways that "there were many times when I told my secretary never again to book me on BOAC or BEA." Maybe it takes a disgruntled customer to straighten out a business. The Conservative government tapped Nicolson to take command of both state-run airlines, and as he begins his third year on the job, his enterprise provides a conspicuous bright spot in Britain's gloomy economy.

Nicolson was commissioned not only to end the two lines' steep financial dive, but also to merge them into one carrier, British Airways. A newcomer to airlines, he was at first greeted with distrust. Workers, fearing mass layoffs after the merger, even threatened not to paint new insignia on the planes. So Nicolson, 51, came in like a lamb. He set up no fewer than 20 worker-management committees to determine everything from the merged line's colors to the future of its cargo operations. By combining separate operations--like the carriers' computer systems ($5,000,000 annual savings) --he cut costs without laying off any of the 58,000 employees.

After a net loss of $800,000 in fiscal 1972, British Airways posted a $12 million net profit on revenues of $1.2 billion for fiscal 1973. Labor productivity has risen 21% in the past 16 months. This calendar year the line is the leader in passenger growth on the North Atlantic; its traffic is up 17% on that run, 50% on the fast-growing Far East run, and 15% systemwide. And quiescent workers recently finished painting BRITISH AIRWAYS on the company's 220 planes, which now constitute the world's largest commercial fleet.

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