[Jimmywright]

whilst OT, London City SIA did not have any money tied up in Ansett. What happened was Air NewZealand brought half of Ansett off News Limited (the Australian arm of News Corp owned by Murdoch), as part of the deal they also brought first right of refusal on the 2nd half too.

When News Ltd came to sell the second half of Ansett SIA was interested in it and ANZ was looking for a new investor, so as the story goes ANZ brought the 2nd half of Ansett as an attempt to get SIA to invest in them. SIA consiquently did that, ANZ, didn’t have the cash to restructure Ansett, end result is ANZ shut Ansett, got save by the NZ government and SIA lost money on the deal. But they never owned part of Ansett. In fact your article says as much.

But getting back OT will be interesting to see if the 2nd part of the rumour is true with Branson selling the rest to Air Chance/KLM.

[transtraxman]

This article was published today (11th June) in TRAVEL WEEKLY
“Regulator set to approve Delta-Virgin Atlantic deal”

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2013/06/11/44337/regulator+set+approve+delta+virgin+atlantic+deal.html

The 60% BA-AA versus 25% Delta-Virgin Atlantic split of the US to UK market seems to allay any competition concerns. However, the article does not mention the traffic split between oneworld, Skyteam (+ Virgin Atl.), and even Star, between Europe and the USA or even North America (Cn-US-Mx). That would be interesting information to see.

The other thing which is not mentioned is the lack of reciprocity between Europe and the USA. The USA still does not permit foreign shareholdings of its airlines greater than 25%. Yet Singapore´s 49% of Virgin Atl.is gleefully handed over to Delta without a murmur of protest. This is shameful kowtowing to US interests. Is it not time to make a point about this imbalance?

[ImissConcorde]

In response to the last paragraph above …..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6477969.stm

Willie Walsh quote “BA chief executive Willie Walsh said the EU had been “naive to believe the US will deliver on the next stage of liberalisation without sanctions”.

He added: “With the EU having given away their most valuable negotiating asset – Heathrow – the UK government must stand by its pledge to withdraw traffic rights if the US does not deliver further liberalisation by 2010.”

[JohnHarper]

ImissConcorde – 11/06/2013 09:44 GMT

What is the relevance of a news article which is six years old?

Things have moved on over the intervening period.

[transtraxman]

JH:-
Do not throw balls out of the court.
Why cannot we put our feet down to say no to the USAmericans who have renegaded on the previous agreement.

[VintageKrug]

I think you’re right to suggest there’s an imbalance here, transtraxman.

I do not, however, expect it to be resolved by the lily-livered EU bureaucrats; another way in which alongside Chapter 11 and all-US carrier government travel policies the US aviation sector is protected while EU airlines suffer with things like EU261 and inefficient ATC.

[canucklad]

I’m on my old hobby horse here…..

Is the airline business the only industry that is allowed to so blatantly create monopolistic anti-competitive cartels and then euphemistically call it an alliance or code share agreement?

Would Sainsbury’s and Waitrose be allowed to split revenues in certain towns to assure profitability equally?

Would RBS and HSBC be allowed to sign an agreement to manipulate lending rates and then equally share the revenue?

Would Scottish Power and EON be allowed to sign an agreement to share each others tariff’s ?

Thoughts please…..

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Looks like that this has moved a bit closer.

http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/2020986-green-light-delta-virgin-atlantic-deal

[BigDog.]

Interesting. One hopes this détente provides an entente for European airlines to acquire significant shareholdings in similar American ones as consolidation continues.

[transtraxman]

BD
Do not be naive, if the US negotiators have not already conceded the right of EU airlines to buy into the US airlines in the same conditions as the reverse (look at Virgin Atlantic and Delta) then it will not happen much to our chagrin.
The UK and EU negotiators are appeasers with all the negative implications of that statement. The Open Skies agreement should be called into question and ripped up to be renegotiated if necessary to ensure a level playing field. We are far from that at the moment. Why do we have to kowtow to the US?

[canucklad]

transtraxman

Totally agree with your above statement…after saying that, why would you want to invest in a US carrier..they spend more time in Chapter 11 than out of it !

[transtraxman]

That is true. However, remember BA´s frustrated investments in United and then US Airways.

These were forward looking at the time but the only one to come to any sort of satisfactory conclusion was KLM´s investment in NorthWest. It should be said that all were limited to 25% of capital so could not make a big impact in the companies concerned.

Also remember the setting up of Virgin America. Here SRB not only were his companies (the Virgin group) not allowed to have a shareholding greater than 25%, but also he, and his group, were prohibited from having any sort of management role in the new airline.

So Virgin America is basically a US airline which licences its name from the Virgin group.

Is this a level playing field?

[BigDog.]

Virgin Atlantic will dominate almost two-fifths of the world’s most lucrative aviation route between Heathrow and New York, after finalising a $360m (£233m) deal with Delta Air Lines.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/10139676/Virgin-goes-to-battle-with-BA-in-New-York-market.html

The Little Red strategy, which some questioned, will certainly be playing a crucial role.

Transatlantic customers will be the winners.

[LeTigre]

With Delta poised to announce Seattle to Heathrow, and a Salt Lake City route rumoured as well, it appears that Delta is really coming to town.

However, I really can’t foresee a massive expansion in the NYC to LHR market as this is already kinda saturated, plus Mr Walsh threatened a capacity war already. However, AA are using larger 77Ws now, so they do seem to be increasing seats.

The codeshare should be good though, lots more destinations than with US Airways. Having hubs in the four corners certainly helps!

[Hippocampus]

I would imagine that if you measured share by premium seat capacity on the London – New York route, Virgin and Delta combined would not be at two-fifths.

[Author]

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