[Tete_de_cuvee]

If I were Spanish I would give him an award too! Saving a basket case at huge cost to BA. – Inspired leadership.
Pity Walsh didn’t wait another 6 months to 1 year and he would have had it for half the price or less! Probably no award though from Spain.

[FormerlyDoS]

Does that mean he can wear a uniform like this one?

http://chortle.co.uk/steveimages/thedictatorcohen.jpg

[VintageKrug]

I think that’s Unite’s former chief Tony Woodley relaxing on his jaunt to communist Cuba while absenting himself from strike talks!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278535/Guess-BA-hold-strike-talks-The-union-boss-Cuba-hailing-revolution.html

[Tete_de_cuvee]

Get Walsh to learn from Woodley – and leave!

The more passionately one keeps to the construct the more delusional one becomes. Buy a real cruise in Egypt Virtual, it may help you.

[LeTigre]

This is not exactly what I had in mind for this thread, so can you both please take your feisty comments elsewhere.

Has anyone had any thoughts about VS equity partners?

[Tete_de_cuvee]

By the same logic surely the same applies to a discussion about VS equity partners.

[LuganoPirate]

I think a question to be asked is who needs VS and what would happen if they went bust – apart from the human cost that is?

I can’t think offhand of any route that Virgin flies, which is not also served by BA.

Why would Etihad/Qatar etc want VS? VS would not feed them pax since people who fly VS (ditto BA) fly direct and do not want a midnight change of planes in the desert, involving more security, buses etc. Those who would rather save a few pounds will fly via the desert but they are well served with QR etc flights ex LHR and so on.

As for AF / KLM similar reasons apply. KLM anyway claims to be the UK’s third airport soaking up a lot of transfer pax from the provinces.

So all in all, if VS goes bust, and after old beardy has finished bleating its all BA’s fault, things will look even better for BA!

[VintageKrug]

Slots. Slots. Slots. Same as bmi.

[Hippocampus]

Le Tigre,

I understand that Delta has looked at buying a stake in Virgin Atlantic but didn’t want to buy at the asking price.

Any buyer from outside the EU is limited to 49% ownership and whilst Singapore Airlines has made it clear it wants to sell its stake, there’s evidently no urgency to get some cash in the bank as its stake has been on sale for years!

Any buyer of Virgin would be very wary because Singapore Airlines has achieved so little from its ownership. They won’t have control over the brand and whatever the ownership structure the airline will always be so closely associated with Richard Branson.

Acquiring a minority stake in an airline without management control has proven not to work in aviation.

[LeTigre]

In finding a suitor, VS will need the following:
-An airline which operates to LHR
-An airline which has quite a few slots
-An airline that has lots of capacity into LHR
-An airline that is large enough to provide significant feed
-An airline that is essentially financially sound

Based on these criteria there are Air France, KLM, SAS, and Aer Lingus that are from EU nations but there are also airlines like Delta, Qatar and Etihad that could take a stake. SAS and Aer Lingus have about 3% of LHR’s slots each, so that would double the VS share but both have political sensitivities and financial issues. That is why, in my view a two way consortium of SAS+QR or Aer Lingus+Etihad could be the best way. In these cases, a merger rather than acquisition is preferred.

Anyone agree with my wacky idea?

[LuganoPirate]

Just a question which could add to the list of your first post LeTigre. The 14 slots BA had to dispose of, did they give them away or were they sold? If sold this wold make life even better and help pay the fine!

[greyhawkgeoff]

LP they are passed to an EU appointed administrator and ‘sold’ to the highest bidder against the EU decided rules allowing the takeover. If no bidder is accepted then they revert to IAG/BA, ditto if they are not used under the slot allocation rules, from memory 80% of a slot has to be used per wintertr or summer season, this allows for the odd tech no flying or bad weather etc, or even dare I say it cancellation because of poor loads.

[LuganoPirate]

Thanks GKing, so IAG does get the money for them.

[RichHI1]

To my mind, untroubled my mischevious leprechauns and pots of gold, I think an equity partner is not the future for VS.

VS thrived when it brought a fresh concept to the market. As time progressed the competition caught up and as VS expanded they revruited “airline experienced management ” who removed the innovation and replaced it with traditional airline thinking. VS no longer have a USP that would make is a better choice than BA or foreign A brands.

Virgin America is successful as they do still have rhe USP and innivation. For how long, time will tell. US carriers are already upping their First Class as a result.

South West is a success as it is innovative and offers a differentiated product. It does not have traditional aiirlinen management approach.

VS will have a future if it innovates ans if it moves away from the rest. Until management embraces that , investment as with LH at BD will be thrown away. Innovation in 2012 means more than an updated seat in Business. VS brought beds to business, premium economy, masseurs on board, limo pick up, speciL check in, fancy lounges (all in ref to UK market). So they have a hard act to follow. They could install CBP at T3, they could install Live TV, they could lirchase a380’s or 748i’s and use the space to be iinovative (showers, Mcdonalds, premium Economy beds… ) does not have to be world first just new to Uk market.

Personally i would not invest in any airline currently give the issues they face with fuel prices, histile governments and trading blocks and andaltering recovery in the developed world.

[LeTigre]

I hate to bring the thread back to topic but just read two interesting articles about the BA-bmi merger.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c8141b48-8af2-11e1-b855-00144feab49a.html#axzz1snhkZ8B4

Summary:
-BMI Baby and BMI Regional almost certain to be closed down
-£80-100m compensation offered
-Turnaround slow, due to loco airline competition
-Analysts question the ability of BA to fill extra seats on long-haul services, starting routes with 747s is just not a good idea
-Losses are expected to be high this year but will be reduced due to: removal of the constant BMI sales, greater feeder traffic, more frequent flyer usage and less competition increasing prices
-Analysts see the greatest potential for BA if they lease out some slots initially, which could offset losses
-Analysts believe the greatest value would be achieved if slots are leased to its oneworld partners
-BMI merger is expected to significantly benefit Ryanair and Flybe

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/20425e8c-8ae5-11e1-b855-00144feab49a.html#axzz1snhkZ8B4

Summary:
-BA has played pilots and unions off against each other
-BA also threatened to make BMI a low-cost operation
-This forced BA pilots to integrate BMI pilots on the same terms but productivity will go up and holiday time down
-BMI pilots will get generous pay packages but less generous perks as they are given less seniority than equivalent BA natives
-The new productivity increase will save a minimum of £10m/year by 2015, which analysts think is easy to achieve, maybe even double
-The pilot integration is almost hardest part of any merger due to crippling strike potential but BA has handled it perfectly
-BA has the lowest (percentage) staff costs of any flag-carrier in Europe, thanks to the efforts of Willie Walsh and is expected to win against the Iberia pilots

So, overall, everything with the merger seems to be going swimmingly. I have to say, IAG seem to be rather good at this whole takeover business. Anyone agree?

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