IMI conference: Deadpan talking. Willie Walsh took a flight home from London early yesterday on Aer Lingus, his old airline. Along the way, he read an interview with his successor Dermot Mannion in Cara, the airline's inflight magazine. A neighbour tapped his shoulder. "It could have been you," he said.

Later in the morning, Mr Walsh stood before his former peers to give an address to the Irish Management Institute conference. It was more like a stand-up routine. Recalling last year's conference, he said he had been grateful for the opportunity to meet the Taoiseach, shake his hand and have their photograph taken. "I treasure that photograph," he said with more than a hint of sarcasm.

Mr Walsh has more interest these days in the affairs of British Airways, where he has been chief executive for six months. Not that many expected an Irishman to get the gig. When his predecessor Rod Eddington resigned, the Evening Standard asked Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary whether Mr Walsh was a contender. "There is no f***ing way they'd ever have a Paddy running BA," he said.

Mr O'Leary was wrong. Now Mr Walsh runs an airline with a turnover of some €12 billion. He's the big boss, but not long ago, when his top team was developing a reform plan, they repeatedly pinpointed a requirement for a 33.33 per cent cut in the number of senior managers.

Asked why, they said they wanted hear his Dublin accent pronounce the "th" in the thirty-three-and-a-third figure again and again.

"I had a sense of humour, so I increased the management target to 50 per cent."

Mr O'Leary is one of Mr Walsh's most formidable rivals, but Mr Walsh respects him enormously all the same. When Mr O'Leary was asked to address the annual black tie dinner of the Airport Operators Association - the enemy, in Ryanair's terms - Mr Walsh went along. Mr O'Leary was predictably pugnacious. "I hadn't seen what petrol is like poured on fire for some time. It was a pleasure to watch," said Mr Walsh.

Not only that, but he picked up a good tip for the Cheltenham Gold Cup from Mr O'Leary. Mr Walsh felt Mr O'Leary couldn't be believed when he said War of Attrition hadn't a hope, so put down £100 at 7-1. The horse duly came home. The people in BA's executive box were surprised to see their man so happy when the Ryanair man prevailed.

Mr Walsh also had a serious message yesterday. He highlighted how Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection enables United Airlines to trade while losing some $57 million per day.

"If any of you put together a survival plan with daily losses of $57 million, the men in white coasts would have dragged you out," he said. "State subsidies are an excuse for not facing up to the error of your ways."

This was familiar talk from a man a who says the European Commission should keep its plans for aviation emissions trading "simple and practical".

On the inevitable Aer Lingus question, he said the decision to float was a positive development. It wasn't too late for privatisation, but he wasn't willing to talk about timing.