Bailout

British Airways chairman Lord King's retirement announcement on Friday was six months ahead of schedule. During his career with B.A., King transformed it from a money-losing state enterprise into a publicly owned -- and highly profitable -- airline. B.A.'s reputation was sullied last month when it conceded that employees had used underhanded methods to poach passengers from rival Virgin Atlantic Airways. King denied that dirty tricks had anything to do with his departure, insisting that he wished to remove "uncertainty and speculation" about the firm's future leadership.