[canucklad]

[quote quote=896832]As the Times and Financial Times point out this seems to be a maneuver to stop any takeover of Norwegian by IAG with rather a narrow approach[/quote]

Transtraxman, your last post raises more questions to consider…

1) The Virgin /Delta hook up is a close as 2 coats of paint to the BA/AA agreement so should be included.

However — If you look at how the EU has allowed these ex-state carriers to create these amalgamations to occur then the CMA has got to be very careful how they leave both BA and VS post Brexit.

To the detriment of smaller airlines and by way of extension us as consumers, the EU has created 3 monolithic cartels in IAG, LHG and AF/KL ? .

IMO , IAG is by far the weakest , because BA is deemed to be weakest, add to that its other 2 “state” carriers are on the fringes of the EU power base.

AF/KL …… Paris will stand steadfast behind AF allowing them to mismanage with obstinate blindness, regardless of the damage it’s doing to its less partner. And I mean at both corporate and government level . When the Republic shouts those in The Hague jump. Especially if the message is delivered via Brussels.

LHG—-By far the strongest and not unsurprisingly, again its Frankfurt that drives the LH group. How is it possible that one airline pretty much monopolises the German speaking population of Europe ? That can’t be right.

Taking that into account, post Brexit (hopefully) the UK regulators will not leave Virgin and BA at a commercial disadvantage to the protected ex state carriers on the continent.

[transtraxman]

Not in a long time have I read such a good anlysis of the airline market in Europe as CANUCKLAD has.However, there are points to be made.

“the CMA has got to be very careful how they leave both BA and VS post Brexit.” As I tried to make clear in my piece the CMA has to look at the bigger picture and not accept that the UK – US market is the predominating one. Now we are in an European one where flights from any city of over one million inhabitants (at least) should be taken into consideration. (if we talk about Norwegian then accept that it flies from multiple airports in Europe so should be judged in the bigger picture of Europe and not just the UK.)

The LH group encompases a German airline (Frankfurt and Munich), a Swiss airline (Zurich), an Austrian airline (Vienna), a Belgian airline (Brussels)on top of which there is the European airline Eurowings(from multiple airports).

The SkyTeam alliance plus the Delta/Virgin Atlantic alliance covers at least Paris CDG, Amsterdam, London Heathrow and London Gatwick more than others.

Canucklad, as you say, there are many things which show that the authorities in Brussels do not necessarily follow the norms of “good governance”. For me that means we should play the same game to our advantage.As you sum up in your last paragraph we should look after our own as much as others do.

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