British Airways in merger talks with Qantas (merged)
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Imperial Airways incarnate
Is it not so perhaps, bring back the 'Cats'
The days of national loyalty has gone, long gone
OZ to UK & V.V. it's who's going to give the best prices, best service, best schedules, best stop-over deals etc, etc.
QF have bad publicity right now, BA to a similar degree, both seemingly have "where are we heading" profiles. The market is in flux, who the heck can predict what's going to happen in the next 3 months, let alone the next 6 to 24 ?
If you're confused now, wait until early 2009.
The days of national loyalty has gone, long gone OZ to UK & V.V. it's who's going to give the best prices, best service, best schedules, best stop-over deals etc, etc. QF have bad publicity right now, BA to a similar degree, both seemingly have "where are we heading" profiles. The market is in flux, who the heck can predict what's going to happen in the next 3 months, let alone the next 6 to 24 ? If you're confused now, wait until early 2009.
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BEA71 - Ah, totally agree. Probably more of the point I was making is that there were people who use to make a decision based purely on who the airline was, not just who had the cheapest fare. Price is a factor, most definitely. I guess it is also the type of people who are going to want to fly as well. You are always going to have people turning up at the airport, and wanting to fly immediately with the cheapest, and then there are those that save for that once in a lifetime flight and go with what the masses are comfortable with or what comes recommended from their travel agent.
bar none - Any large mergers would attract initially the attention from the competition authorities. Whether they would be happy about it, who knows. They do work in mysterious ways sometimes. They have only recently allowed other international airlines in to run domestic flights as far as I am aware. Yeah, as I was saying, Qantas use to have good standards (going back a few years now), and had never flown BA until I had moved over to the UK. On the flights I had flown, around 6 or so, there has always been an issue. Flight to Munich, bags didn't turn up. Got them three days later when we got onto our return flight, completely soaked and full of water. Honey moon flight, got seperated by the isle. Flight to London, after landing waited for 1 hour or so while apparently someone had to be found to operate the aero bridge. Flight to Oz, bags went to singapore and then flown back to london, and didn't get to Oz. Maybe, strokes of bad luck, but was enough to find alternatives.
merlinxx - Definitely very interesting times ahead that is for sure..
bar none - Any large mergers would attract initially the attention from the competition authorities. Whether they would be happy about it, who knows. They do work in mysterious ways sometimes. They have only recently allowed other international airlines in to run domestic flights as far as I am aware. Yeah, as I was saying, Qantas use to have good standards (going back a few years now), and had never flown BA until I had moved over to the UK. On the flights I had flown, around 6 or so, there has always been an issue. Flight to Munich, bags didn't turn up. Got them three days later when we got onto our return flight, completely soaked and full of water. Honey moon flight, got seperated by the isle. Flight to London, after landing waited for 1 hour or so while apparently someone had to be found to operate the aero bridge. Flight to Oz, bags went to singapore and then flown back to london, and didn't get to Oz. Maybe, strokes of bad luck, but was enough to find alternatives.
merlinxx - Definitely very interesting times ahead that is for sure..
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Raggyman - No airline in the world does intentionally lose baggage. At most airports the baggage handling is done by the airport company,
who, although they cause the problem, do not take the blame. Airlines
have to pay compensation to the customer and settle all claims. The
legal side is clear - the passenger has a contract with the airline, not
with the airport company. Lost baggage is a neuralgic and very costly point, some airports are worse than others, the airlines get a bad
reputation for something they haven´t caused. The whole situation
gives a lot of room for speculation, but let´s stay with facts only -
a baggage handler leaves a whole trolley of bags behind and the airline
pays the bill...
who, although they cause the problem, do not take the blame. Airlines
have to pay compensation to the customer and settle all claims. The
legal side is clear - the passenger has a contract with the airline, not
with the airport company. Lost baggage is a neuralgic and very costly point, some airports are worse than others, the airlines get a bad
reputation for something they haven´t caused. The whole situation
gives a lot of room for speculation, but let´s stay with facts only -
a baggage handler leaves a whole trolley of bags behind and the airline
pays the bill...
I'd guess this would finally enable BA to stop the expensive business of flying London based crews to any further than BKK & SIN on the Oz route and possibly ditto QF in the other direction....back to the old Imperial + Qantas routing!
Last edited by Max Tow; 3rd Dec 2008 at 10:06.
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L337, you missed out B&Q (as someone else pointed out). :-)
As for the news, Oz laws state that no foreign entity can own more than 49% of an Oz airline, and those 49% can be owned by a single entity. However, the Oz government has in the past indicated that they would waive this requirement for the right bidder.
The Air Partners bid failed (which would have had this requirement waived) because Qantas shareholders didn't like the deal. If BA decided to offer the right deal, who knows - They might get that requirement waived too.
IMO this stinks of keeping up with the Joneses ("Lufthansa's doing it, we must too"). I'd rather have BA pay up the hole in their pension fund and improve their punctuality before starting to look at who they can buy next.
S.
As for the news, Oz laws state that no foreign entity can own more than 49% of an Oz airline, and those 49% can be owned by a single entity. However, the Oz government has in the past indicated that they would waive this requirement for the right bidder.
The Air Partners bid failed (which would have had this requirement waived) because Qantas shareholders didn't like the deal. If BA decided to offer the right deal, who knows - They might get that requirement waived too.
IMO this stinks of keeping up with the Joneses ("Lufthansa's doing it, we must too"). I'd rather have BA pay up the hole in their pension fund and improve their punctuality before starting to look at who they can buy next.
S.
Much more fun is the "name" of the newly merged Airlines
Speedbird
Would be a great name for an airline, rather than just a callsign, no worries about offending national sensitivities.
the lunatic fringe
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... and improve there punctuality.
To quote the Intranet from a few days ago:
To quote the Intranet from a few days ago:
T5 punctuality is a record breaker
Another punctuality record was broken at T5 yesterday when 75 per cent of shorthaul departures departed on time or early.
The record-breaking performance capped a successful day across the network, with more than half of British Airways’ flights across the network – 377 out of 697 – departing early.
A total of 124 flights departed early from Heathrow, the fourth highest on record and the second highest ever during the winter season. Meanwhile in T1, BA is regularly seeing the entire operation departing within the industry standard of 15 minutes
There was a fantastic performance at Gatwick too, with 44 out of 82 flights departing early or on time.
“Yesterday was a fantastic performance and I would like to thank our teams across the network for all your hard work,” said GM operations and punctuality Peter Lynam.
“Delivering a strong operational performance during these tough times is vital. We are consistently setting new standards of performance that our competitors simply cannot match.”
Another punctuality record was broken at T5 yesterday when 75 per cent of shorthaul departures departed on time or early.
The record-breaking performance capped a successful day across the network, with more than half of British Airways’ flights across the network – 377 out of 697 – departing early.
A total of 124 flights departed early from Heathrow, the fourth highest on record and the second highest ever during the winter season. Meanwhile in T1, BA is regularly seeing the entire operation departing within the industry standard of 15 minutes
There was a fantastic performance at Gatwick too, with 44 out of 82 flights departing early or on time.
“Yesterday was a fantastic performance and I would like to thank our teams across the network for all your hard work,” said GM operations and punctuality Peter Lynam.
“Delivering a strong operational performance during these tough times is vital. We are consistently setting new standards of performance that our competitors simply cannot match.”
B & Q Airways, routing problem
Well done, whoever spotted the potential of B & Q as the name of the new airline.
One of the issues that they will have to deal with is the routing problem. Why on earth would anyone from Europe wanting to get to ANZ use B & Q when they could go via Etihad/Emirates, via much much nicer terminals, at a cheaper price?
One of the issues that they will have to deal with is the routing problem. Why on earth would anyone from Europe wanting to get to ANZ use B & Q when they could go via Etihad/Emirates, via much much nicer terminals, at a cheaper price?
Paxing All Over The World
From BA
Well - if you schedule your departure time sufficiently far ahead of actual times agreed with ATC, then you ought to get 90% away early. 
Merger or partnership? If a merger, then they would probably create a holding company, something like Trans World Airlines for example.
then each airline remains a 'local' company.
I agree with Ametyst1, and have said several times in various threads that we will move towards having a handful of super carriers that own a number of airlines and they will be called, OneWorld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance and so on. The deeper this global recession becomes, the sooner these super carriers will emerge.
The folks that set up the alliances and all the carriers have been waiting for this moment. Only a serious recession will force govts to give up control in order to allow something of the original airline to remain and some jobs to be retained. Otherwise countries will lose their own airline identity. And, for reasons I understand, most countries still consider it an important vanity to have their 'own' airline.
... with more than half of British Airways’ flights across the network – 377 out of 697 – departing early.
Merger or partnership? If a merger, then they would probably create a holding company, something like Trans World Airlines for example.
then each airline remains a 'local' company.I agree with Ametyst1, and have said several times in various threads that we will move towards having a handful of super carriers that own a number of airlines and they will be called, OneWorld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance and so on. The deeper this global recession becomes, the sooner these super carriers will emerge.
The folks that set up the alliances and all the carriers have been waiting for this moment. Only a serious recession will force govts to give up control in order to allow something of the original airline to remain and some jobs to be retained. Otherwise countries will lose their own airline identity. And, for reasons I understand, most countries still consider it an important vanity to have their 'own' airline.
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Where will BA's appetite for mergers cease? First its AA (a brilliant deal), then IB and now QF. Its fantastic that BA are looking at doing something positive in the business and face up to the KLM-AF and the DL combines. It make sense. Then we have the predictable whine from the other lot about it (same boring song, same boring singer). I for one hope that BA gets its way with the mergers which will create a world class super carrier.
In the wake of all of this is Ryanair don't manager to get Aer Lingus, there is one other British airline that they could take over and make something out of it. Ahhh the prospect there is something!
In the wake of all of this is Ryanair don't manager to get Aer Lingus, there is one other British airline that they could take over and make something out of it. Ahhh the prospect there is something!
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Interesting times ahead for all of us at BA i feel. I do think Mr Walsh and his other managers should take a grasp of the situation within the BA group itself and sort out some issues with itself far closer to home.
Paxing All Over The World
Dan Air 87
Whilst trying not to drift the thread too far, I have no doubt that RYR will get it's prey. Not just yet awhile - but they will get them.
Ryanair don't manager to get Aer Lingus
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This is being presented as a 50:50 merger of equals (based, presumably, on stock market valuations) and not as a takeover by BA, even though BA must surely be the bigger airline (in passenger-km terms, for example).
I see from the UK broadsheet press that Iberia is unhappy at being kept in the dark. There are suggestions that BA might be using the Qantas negotiations to put pressure on Iberia to reach a deal (although, as I've written elsewhere on PPRuNe, I think it would be a grave error for BA to merge with Iberia, given, apart from anything else, the lack of customer service values in the latter's corporate culture).
I see from the UK broadsheet press that Iberia is unhappy at being kept in the dark. There are suggestions that BA might be using the Qantas negotiations to put pressure on Iberia to reach a deal (although, as I've written elsewhere on PPRuNe, I think it would be a grave error for BA to merge with Iberia, given, apart from anything else, the lack of customer service values in the latter's corporate culture).
