[Henkel.Trocken]

However AF/KLM shares remain more valuable.

If BA and IB were to split presumably that would be the end of IAG. Their Chief Executive and the other dead beats employed would then presumably be redundant.

What an excellent outcome.

[Hippocampus]

So much nonsense from the anti-BA agenda on this thread.

Iberia never merged with BA to be a feeder & leisure airline. The Madrid hub has huge long term potential for IAG and is perfectly placed to capture feed on routes to Latin America and IAG has all the skills and experience to exploit it for the long term.

And what many forget is that a huge amount of structural change was achieved by Willie Walsh at BA with agreement with the unions.

The one single exception was BASSA which had a track record of militancy dating back to the 1980s and thankfully, now BASSA’s reign of terror has ended, BA is in infinitely better shape.

KLM could have been a good partner for BA but there would have been much overlap between the two networks and at the time BA may have had to have given up slots at Heathrow.

Whatever happens with Iberia, IAG will still be very much in existence as Vueling should be joining IAG as a new wholly owned subsidiary in the coming months.

No-one likes to see people lose their jobs through compulsory redundancies but the disgraceful behaviour of union militants in Spain and their anti-British behaviour has squandered any sympathy for them.

[VintageKrug]

“Henkel.Trocken – 06/03/2013 14:47 GMT

However AF/KLM shares remain more valuable.”

Really grasping at straws now.

[BigDog.]

Pot and Kettle VK.
Take a little look prior to your 2008 and you will see shortly after Walsh took control the BA price stood at 574, a year later it stood at 278. So basically Walsh had already destroyed over 50% of BA’s value over 2007 prior to you wishing to start your clock.

Over the past year AF/KLM has considerably outperformed IAG. Methinks this is at least partly due WW admitting the crock that is IB – something he should have realised years before.

Anthony – not having led Spanish operations, I do not know. Sackings are a non starter. Redundancy will be the option. I believe this is a harder/more costly process than in France, let alone the UK.

Hippo – the skill in essential restructuring is not demonstrating how ballsy you can be by taking on the unions, the skill is winning hearts and minds so after the restructuring the motivation and morale builds the company. Walsh singularly failed at that. Secondly crying wolf only works once so it is not unexpected IAG appear to be facing a tough time wrt the Spanish judiciary. Thirdly Walsh also failed at restructuring the BA Pilots a problem which has now come home to roost with the IB Pilots who are merely asking for parity with BA.

[AnthonyDunn]

@ BigDog. – 06/03/2013 15:30 GMT

“Sackings are a non starter. Redundancy will be the option. I believe this is a harder/more costly process than in France, let alone the UK”.

Streuth. Talk about taking on a poisoned chalice….! I can only hope (for IAG management, staff and investor’s sake) that the “upside potential” is truly as great as some analysts claim and others (myself included) wish for.

[BeckyBoop]

BigDog…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008

would this of had any effect on the share price?

“Take a little look prior to your 2008 and you will see shortly after Walsh took control the BA price stood at 574, a year later it stood at 278. So basically Walsh had already destroyed over 50% of BA’s value over 2007 prior to you wishing to start your clock.”

[VintageKrug]

Sadly, Becky, here’s none so blind as those who can’t see.

There are plenty of naive people who will believe the doublespeak spouted by some – on such foundations the Left thrives. But it doesn’t work here.

Whatever facts we set out here, the usual anti-BA Agenda of Bruce98/TetedeCuvee/Saviour_Monk/CallMeIshmael will bleat and carp to suit their own perspective. They change the argument, divert attention and throw in a few spurious suggestions which are without foundation. When they lose the argument, they attack individuals.

Which is (mostly) OK, as they are entitled to their opinion without being attacked personally.

Those perspectives remain wrong, just as they were wrong about the outcome of the last major BA strike.

There have been a number of full and part-time BASSAmentalists who have popped up increasingly on this site in recent days, aligning almost exactly with an uptick of activity on the still leaky BASSA forum (Hello, will I get another mention, I wonder…?) who have been whipped up into an impotent frenzy by the goings on at Iberia.

You only have to take a look at the homepage on the BASSA website to see their approach; once again this risks being challenged as potential secondary action.

They are wisely being ignored by IAG, and this will continue to be the best approach. Just as it is on this forum.

Sadly, there is only one solution to secure the maximum number of jobs at Iberia for the long term, and that is the medicine which will be administered by IAG in Madrid, just as it was administered in London by the same team. The share price demonstrates the confidence and support for this strategy.

There is also considerable opportunity for IAG; let’s face it Iberia couldn’t be more of a basket case and properly run with an appropriate cost base, new on board products, fleet and better cabin crew the potential is massive. All of these issues are now being addressed, and will deliver considerable value in the coming years.

It is never nice to contemplate the compulsory redundancy of others, but in this case it is the only way to save the remaining workforce.

There is a clear and considerably less attractive option for the entire workforce, which can be initiated should the need arise and will keep IAG active as the key player in the Spanish market, profiting from Iberia’s routes, but without Iberia’s excessive cost base.

[BigDog.]

Becky – over the 2007 period I noted that Walsh destroyed over 50% of BA’s value, the FTSE 100 fell from 6203 to 5880 or around 5%.

[BigDog.]

And yet again when VK’s highly suspect position has more leaks than a colander so he resorts to his usual obfuscating BASSA rant and claiming BASSA infiltration.

Personally I find it so tedious I would like to issue a challenge VK. I am happy to meet with Martyn Sinclair and show him all my credentials which can then be checked against claims I have made on this forum. As Martyn has frequently backed you, I challenge you to do the same with Martyn vis-a-vis your alleged extensive travel, FFP and hotel statuses, business. Then let Martyn report back to the forum as to whether or not our various claims hold water.

Are you prepared to put-up or shut up?

[BeckyBoop]

BigDog, would be BA have been better off if they had a business model like John Lewis where the share are owned by the staff?.

[century303]

I have flown Iberia various occasions recently, both long and short haul. Other than the occasional disappointment of a hectic transfer in Madrid I have found them to be excellent. LHR to MAD in J on Monday aboard the A330-300 probably was the best short haul I have ever taken. Excellent seat and a very tasty meal and wine. The on-board staff were great and they were genuinely embarrassed about the strike, I think they will eventually turn out to be an excellent partner for BA – there will always be teething problems but more so when you are dealing with a very unionised machine. Great access to South America.

[AnthonyDunn]

@ BeckyBoop – 06/03/2013 15:44 GMT

You do have a point.

Interesting to see in Wikipedia that by 2000, the financial services industry in the US amounted to just shy of 1% of US GDP. In the UK, by the time of the financial melt-down in 2007-08, the financial services industry in the UK amounted to some 12% of UK GDP and its borrowings and lendings translate to the UK being the most exposed to the financial services industry of any economy in the world. Take Armageddon and add massive over-exposure to financial services and you have a UK economy that faces at least a decade of Deficit Reduction and Anaemic Growth – or the DRAG decade as it was labelled by Larry Elliot of the Grauniad back in 2008.

It’s what happens when you choose, as an act of policy by Margaret Thatcher’s Tories and the estate agents devising her economic policies after 1979, to wilfully, deliberately and knowingly destroy over 10% of your manufacturing base in three years (1980-82). And then passively to allow the decline to continue thereafter. These economic illiterates really believed that we could live off services alone and it’s taken them some thirty years to realise just how wrong they were. We fell into a trade deficit shortly thereafter and have remained a loss making country pretty much ever since. Which is why the success of BA and other UK airlines is of such importance; we need to earn forex from somewhere to pay our food, energy and consumer durables import bills.

[esselle]

Given the very restrictive employment laws in Spain, and the massive socio-political issues which face the country ( youth unemployment of over 50% ), the commercial strategy which may indicate this to be a good deal will falter in the short term ( 3-5 years ), simply because the argy bargy will be huge.

Either WW is a man of enormous vision, or he is sleepwalking into his last deal.

Not sure I can decide which.

[BigDog.]

Becky, am certainly very pro the John Lewis model.

Esselle, forward this WW interview (from Oct 2011) to the 1m 15sec point and methinks you will have your answer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9iMCO5TqZI

… it is the “portrayal” that is the problem, not the reality. Dream on WW.

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

esselle

You are correct, the unemployment rate is staggering. 26% overall and more in some regions.

century303

It’s good to read something positive about Iberia.

With its lucrative Latin American routes, I sincerely hope there is light at the end of the tunnel.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/03/06/inenglish/1362584235_255502.html

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