Consolidation throughout the industry was never going to be a surprise, but this merger seems to make sense and one might say ‘yep, why not?’. The real gain for Easy here is the many qualified 737 trainers who are in short supply at the moment. Many retired Nigels moved over to Go for the evening of their careers, trainers and all (including Figment for a while). I don’t buy for one moment the wholesale re-equipping with Airbus either, it simply doesn’t make sense to spend millions reshaping your operation if you’ve already gone down the Boeing route. It increases your transitional costs disproportionately in relation to the supposed savings. Why else would BA be doing it.
For BA to have made a hash of Go is no surprise either. The concept, as we know was right, but the implementation and the management was not. To have two diametrically opposed products competing on the same routes was stupid. Why charge £500 club to Milan Linate from Heathrow and also £30 to the same airport from Stansted. It was flawed fundamentally. What was required was clear blue water between the two products. Offering the Full Monty from Heathrow to Milan Linate, and the cheap and cheerful on Stansted to Bergamo would have contrasted the two products and delineated the choice. There are two markets, two concepts. You don’t go to the Ritz Hotel and ask for a Travelodge room.
One thing that I will take issue with though is the concept of crew costs. Nigels get bad press here and elsewhere, not the least from our own management. But I had from the horse’s mouth from someone who was in a position to know, that if Go had to operate out of LHR on the same routes, then they would show a similar cost base. The idea that Nigels are expensive is a fallacy, and one that we have poorly promoted. BA costs are purely and simply down to the headcount of numpties.
Nice to hear about a success in the airline industry, anything that secures and increases pilot jobs is a good thing. Good Luck to all.
