'I'll be back in Footsie' - BA boss

BRITISH Airways boss Rod Eddington has vowed to pilot his ailing airline back into the elite FTSE 100 index if it is ejected this week. The 52-year-old Australian admitted that the company's almost certain relegation from the index would be a blow. 'No company that's in the Footsie wants to come out of it,' he said.

He also confessed that the company came close to 'meltdown' after 11 September and that a war in Iraq would be a 'major issue'.

Banishment from the Footsie would be the latest humiliation for the flag carrier, which has seen its market value shrink to just £1.5bn - more than £1bn less than Irish-based discount airline Ryanair.

But Eddington vowed on BBC1's Breakfast With Frost programme: 'We will come back.' He insisted that he was building a 'more robust' BA. 'We've taken unprofitable flying out of our network, we've attacked our cost base, we've worked much harder to compete with the no-frills carriers,' he said. Eddington has taken the knife to BA's bloated costs, cutting 13,000 jobs, of which almost 8,000 have already gone.

When asked how close the company was to 'meltdown' following the World Trade Centre attacks, he said: 'I think we were all close one way or another. As a result of that, a number, including household names like Swissair, actually failed.'

He added that military action against Iraq 'would be a major issue, obviously, for all the intercontinental airlines, including us'.

BA will fly flags at half-mast on 11 September and staff will have the option of wearing a commemorative lapel ribbon. The company will observe a minute's silence.

He said: 'Clearly some customers are still apprehensive and the additional security arrangements on the ground put some people off travelling. But I'm an optimist and by that I mean I think travel is in people's lifeblood.'