Quote: "China Southern stated that the reason its had taken so long to launch a London-Guangzhou service was that they found it difficult to find slots in LHR, they did in the end but its just shows how hard it is for new entrants to access LHR"
Yet another very good reason for LHR expansion.....
Quote: "Even if the slots are merely up for sale, VN will still have to compete with BA when it comes to buying those slots, along with other major airlines, so unless they are prepared to pay though the nose for them, they will find it hard to get any
Also what do you mean “so BA wouldn't necessarily know about it” I thought it was a open market?"
Not neccessarily, it may be a private arrangement between two carriers: it could be a sale, it could be a lease. There are enough carriers with LHR slots who are in dire financial straits, for example, could be anyone.
Quote: "If you mean within ST, which one would be willing to do a deal with VN? (Maybe they could get some if AF-KL-DL decides to fully buy out VS and transfer the assets to those airlines and their partners, like VN)
In fact which airline would be prepared to sell to VN (outside of VN) without demanding them to pay a lot of money in return, unless the airline is in serious financial trouble"
Who knows? It doesn't have to be a deal with another Skyteam member, although it's probably more likely. If VN is serious about the route longterm, they may want to move from LGW to LHR-4, it would be a natural progression as it is/was with other carriers. VN gets access to a Skyteam hub by being at LHR-4.
Quote: "Someone's back at college with internet access I see"
Yes, skipness, this college term does appear to have started early!
Last edited by Fairdealfrank; 5th Jan 2013 at 22:51.