Leah McLaren

The Aussie who saved our flag

Leah McLaren meets Rod Eddington, who is rescuing BA by sacking thousands

issue 30 November 2002

A cowboy name. Heavy on the consonants and crudely clipped, the first three letters doubling as an instrument of discipline, it is as solid and unpretty as the man it refers to. Given recent challenges, a perfect moniker for a captain of the British aviation industry. ‘I’ve been an airline chief executive for over ten years now and it is a stressful job,’ Rod Eddington is saying, fixing me with a crap-cutting, High Noon look. ‘But you have to be able to accept that it’s stressful. I won’t pretend for a moment that it’s been easy.’

We are sitting in a windowless, over-furnished boardroom in the Park Lane Hotel in Piccadilly. Eddington, who starts work each day shortly after 7 a.m., has been here conducting meetings since early this morning. When I walk in at quarter past ten, he jumps from his seat and goes over to the sideboard to make me a cup of tea.

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