[SergeantMajor]

I’d hardly say BA left finding a bride too late. It was dating for decades.

United (legacy of which is the shared JFK terminal), US Airways, America West, Qantas, Swiss even klm to name the main ones.

All were scuppered by BA’s inability to get its own house in order, in particular addressing the pension deficit.

Willie Walsh has now achieved this, and within a very short space of time has managed to acquire both Iberia, and bmi, taking out Virgin’s competitive edge in one fell swoop. Pretty impressive.

[documentary123]

Hello,

I’m currently working on this documentary. I wondered if there were any BA regular customers who would be available for a brief conversation? Please message me if so.

Thanks

[documentary123]

Hello,

I’m currently working on this documentary. I wondered if there were any BA regular customers who would be available for a brief conversation? Please message me if so.

<a href="mailto:[email protected]“>[email protected]

Thanks

[BigDog.]

– Interest payments to cover IB’s 2012 €1 billion loss would be €40-50 million per annum depending on credit rating. Not mentioning a €1 billion lost opportunity cost.

– There must have been a serious lack of due diligence bordering on negligence in the timing (Walsh has apologised for) and valuation of IB

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/feb/28/iag-defends-ba-iberia-merger-1bn-loss

– It was not an acquisition, it was a merger which resulted in BA shareholders being royally shafted and the resulting company (IAG) being Spanish.

– “A very short period of time” : The engagement was well on the cards before Walsh joined. Lacking the wherewithal, Walsh was clueless as to the basket case IB was and failed to have Iberia start putting their house in order for 5 years, a further 3 years has passed – 8 years is hardly a very short period of time.

– Again, the Brazilian economy is bigger than the next 6 biggest south American countries combined. Add together Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Columbia and it is still smaller than Brazil. TAP has the routes into Brazil and elsewhere and could have been acquired for significantly less and BA would have remained British.

To those who blindly follow Walsh – one wonders what level of loss IB need to incur before they would begin to question the wisdom of the marriage and ponder on the massive lost opportunity.

[sparkyflier]

CX Diamond- what a hugely interesting job you have, sounds fascinating.

Big Dog -that is a very interesting fact about Brazil being bigger than the next 6 economies in South America.

There have been many threads about IAG financials & Willy Walsh, but this one is about the utilization of aircraft and where they (should) fly to, so your thoughts on this would be interesting to see.

I do accept though that by mentioned how BA not flying to places like SCL & BOG I bought into the discussion about lost opportunities and profit!

Regarding Africa, when BA bought out BMI they ditched the Addis Ababa route. The BMI offering was pretty puny there, using an A320/1 with a stop arriving at a silly time in the middle of the night (2-3 ish), so ditching this route would have been based on looking at stats which would not have been great, but short sighted as the Ethiopean economy is growing very well (7-8% in 2012).

Over the past years ET has used 767/757, then 767, then 787 and now using a mix of 787 & 777-200LR. This demonstartes much increased demand, and so one wonders why BA were short sighted and gave up on this so quickly.

[rferguson]

Looks like a non-stop flight to Punta Cana in Dominican Republic is on it’s way. BA currently flies to Punta Cana via Antigua but it seems it will receive it’s own direct flights.

http://www.caribjournal.com/2014/02/12/british-airways-to-launch-nonstop-service-to-punta-cana/

[BusinessBabble]

I would guess that ET relies on a fair amount of transfer traffic to various African destinations to support its London to Addis Ababa route.

The only other European airline I can see currently flying there is Lufthansa (via Jeddah) 4 times a week.

[sparkyflier]

Rferguson

Interesting to hear about Punta Cana going nonstop, and maybe no surprise. I read Barbados and Kingston, Jamaica are also getting more flights, which is a good sign of the UK economy and great for those economies. It will be interesting to see if there will be a wider Caribbean re-structuring.

Would be nice to see Santo Domingo also being served as that looks interesting, and San Juan in Puerto Rico, but will not raise my hopes for those!

St Vincent has a brand new shiny airport which I am sure they hoped would attract BA or VS, but I thought BA could allocate some 767s to LGW to try out longer thinner routes, but it seems will not follow that opportunity. They do after all use 767s to Nassau and Cayman Islands from LHR which are further than most Caribbean destinations.

Still no Fort Lauderdale as predicted on this forum for years, yet Tampa gets more flights!

BusinessBabble I imagine you are right about a fair amount of ETs traffic heading to other cities in their network, but re LH and their Jeddah/Addis flight, demand is increasing on this and the aircraft is changing from A340-300 to A340-600, quite an increase in capacity.

[transtraxman]

This is the link to the BA website informing about next winter´s changes at Gatwick.
“More Winter Sun From Gatwick With Extra British Airways”.

http://www.britishairways.com/en-es/bamediacentre/newsarticles?articleID=20140212144910&articleType=LatestNews#.Uvya8fvadQV

It is strange, however, because a few days ago I am certain I saw a piece of news announcing BA flights to Austin, Texas. Now that I have been trying to find the source I cannot find anything anywhere.
Does anybody have any information? RFerguson perhaps?

The flight does exist….
LHR 11.25 to AUS 15.40
AUS 17.50 to LHR 09.00 (+1)
…. at least next November.
Is it in fact new?

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

No, you weren’t seeing things transtraxman!

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/destinations/austin/flights-to-austin

[transtraxman]

Thanks for that Alexpo1.
However, my curiosity has been tickled, so when did/does this route begin?

[Stowage222]

Hi Transtraxman – I have only heard that flights start ‘in March’ with the B787, 5 times a week initially and reverting to daily in early May 2014.

[BusinessBabble]

London Heathrow – Austin

eff 03MAR14 NEW Boeing 787 operation with 5 weekly flights, daily from 05MAY14

BA191 LHR1155 – 1600AUS 788 D
BA190 AUS1820 – 0925+1LHR 788 D

[SergeantMajor]

Is that news, BusinessBabble? I’m booked on that service shortly after it starts so it must have been announced some time ago. Or have they increased the frequency?

[transtraxman]

@SM

BB was answering me for which I am grateful. It must have slipped off my radar.

[Author]

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