British Airways - 2
 

Airline Partners having a tilt at BA?

Story in the Sydney Morning Herald about the wunch of bankers who just got seen off from Qantas, possibly having a crack at BA. :yuk:

Don't these people ever learn? :ugh:

To the barricades, boys & girls!!

Just be aware that it was a fundamental mistake that caused them to miss out, not the reaction of the general public and minority shareholders.

If they put their minds to it, the could well nail any company!

G'day ;)

dont forget that APA owns a few international airport..... you own an airline, and a few airports, and you have a massive pricing advantage! charge fees to every other airline, and the fees paid by your airline go back into your other pocket.

Geez, if you want to loose money big time, buy an airline. Just hope these guys aren't using my superannuation money.

But buying BA?

BA faces 350million pound fine
 

Over it,s fuel surcharges bbc business seems to be reporting this quite well,oh dear more problems for WW

What the BBC report I heard said was BA have made a £350m provision in their accounts (as required by International Accounting Standards) against POSSIBLE fines in the UK and US over fixing fuel surcharges in collaboration with other Airlines.

The important thing here is that BA have admitted that their staff broke price fixing regulations so a fine seems inevitable.`

BA's 737s on the way out
 

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...oeing-737.html

737s to be replaced by A319s at LGW

APA may be after British Airways

May 18, 2007

ITS bid for Australia's Qantas Airways now officially dead, rumours are circulating about Airline Partners Australia eyeing British Airways.
According to a report from London overnight, shares in British Airways gained 2.35 per cent on the London stock exchange on Thursday, to 501.50 pence.

The report states the share price rise comes ahead of the publication of the airline's annual results today, "amid rumours of a takeover by the consortium Airline Partners led by Macquarie Bank".

Interesting point in this might be the foreign-ownership restrictions on BA (as was with the Qantas caper).

Then again, Macquarie Bank said when announcing its latest results results recently that it was setting up a stand-alone operation in London, in order to get an EU 'passport'... so that might well be that hurdle jumped.

Pretty big fleet considering BA didn't want Airbusses at all and only inherited them from B Cal. who'd ordered some.

BA admits price fixing
 

British Airways admitted breaking price-fixing laws and set aside a surprise 350 million pounds to pay potential fines.
BA shares fell 3.7 percent by 12:57 p.m. as the provision -- more than half the year's profit -- accompanied a 13 percent decline in operating profit.

Full story here

Nice to see the managers have decided to take this cash out of the profits, which neatly drops them below the threshold at which the employees get some profit sharing. Still, management bonuses remain intact. Nice to see we're all still busting a gut to save a pounds worth of fuel when some overpaid numpty can blow £350M with a few phone calls.:mad:

Isn't it funny that BA are in trouble with price-fixing the fuel surcharge, when fuel is effectively price-fixed by OPEC. Wasn't it recently they decided that the current price was okey-dokey (for them), so there was no need to up production? Cowboys, the lot of them.

This is excellent news. I was becoming really concerned that BA would drop LGW entirely using the excuse that the capital outlay on new aircraft would not be worth it.
Good luck to all concerned at Gatwick and long may the alternative to the Orange Empire ( much as I do actually use 'em ) be available.

BUT is Gatwick gonna get the new aircraft ? I bet they go to Heathrow and Gatwick get the oldest A319s.......

You know what the real problem is?

Somebody forgot to pay the Collusion Damage Waiver...

:mad: :ugh:

ba are sending the new a320s to lhr, and lgw are getting the a319s from lhr. all of wh9ich are fairly new and are very nice clean aircraft. i will miss them!!! much better than the 737 ba has.

Do you know when this will happen?

Very, very good news. On my last flight to toulouse the 73s cabin was a right mess, overhead structure loose/misaligned and a sodding great hole where a kickpanel was missing by seat 24/25(?)A, very tired interior, these cabs seem to be nearing the end.

MoJo

Is it not also the case that another well known airline was involved but decided to offer evidence against BA to avoid being reprimanded/fined?

CDW - Still laughing at that one...

Willie Walsh was unconvincing this morning about the reasons why he needs to reduce declared profits by £350m. The "expected fine" story might be partly true, but sure as hell it's not the whole truth.

Mind you he did a good job of clearing himself personally from any involvement in a cartel, just in case of a criminal prosecution.

:D Nice one! Can't remember if the guys who did the collusion lost their jobs or not. Whatever, hanging is too good for these muppets. :mad:

BA announces a replacement of 14 of their oldest 737's
 

BA have announced the replacement of 14 737's with airbus 319's. Of course, these are old LHR aircraft, not new ones, the new airbus's go to LHR. This opens up a can of worms at LGW as there will, for some time, be a dual fleet operating alongside each other. Is it going to be a dual-base airbus fleet - which asks, bid-line or carmen? And presumably that would also mean all the few nightstops LGW has would have to be given to tours on the airbus?

British Airways has ordered eight new Airbus A320 family aircraft for delivery 2008-2010.

The airline said the move is the first step towards a single shorthaul fleet across British Airways’ network.

The airline will also upgrade the Gatwick shorthaul fleet by replacing the oldest 14 Boeing 737s with Airbus A319 aircraft.

Willie Walsh, British Airways’ chief executive said: “We’ve made considerable progress at Gatwick, particularly on costs. Gatwick is an important part of our shorthaul strategy and replacing the older Boeing 737 fleet with Airbus aircraft will give us flexibility across both airports.”

British Airways will place a major order for replacement and growth widebodied aircraft later this year for delivery in the next decade.

British Airways currently has a shorthaul fleet of 67 Airbus aircraft. The order will boost the Airbus shorthaul fleet to 79 aircraft as a further 13 are on order and nine older A320s are due to leave the fleet in 2007-2008.

At Heathrow, the airline has the following shorthaul fleet: 33 Airbus A319 aircraft, 26 Airbus A320 aircraft, 8 Airbus A321 aircraft, 13 Boeing 757 aircraft and seven Boeing 767 aircraft.
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Most of these 319's will be 9 years old before they get to Gatwick, whilst fresher than some of the 737's they're hardly new.

ok fine i didnt see that till afterwards - however my questions in post pose a different theme. but thanks for pointing it out

As a regular BA LGW shorthaul punter I,d rather have a 20 year old Boeing than a new Airbus.

Where does it say that they admit to price fixing....? A link to the admission would be nice.

I would not disagree that the seem to be preparing for the worst and they might well be guilty, but the title is factually incorrect.

Hmmm...

So it's only BA who are hit by the rising fuel charges!!!!

Really.



Come on and live in the real world!

The interiors of many of the A319's are already tired and as someone stated will be even worst by 2010. It is a shame that LGW has been treated`as`second class again and probably the residue of aircraft will be more second hand from LHR. At least it appears to ensure some future.

Big Kahuna Burger

The link is in the very first post.

I haven't checked the actual results statement but the admission should be in there somewhere.

So every penny they made from the fuel surcharge is going to pay the fine for introducing an illegally derived fuel surcharge, brilliant!
If they had just come up with an arbitary figure and applied it, all well and good but no, they have to ring around everyone else and find out how much the opposition is going to charge.

Any of these 737s going spare? Some lo-cos are looking for capacity (if they buy a 737 can you throw in a 757 as well?) :E

Maybe they'll finally get rid of one of the most stupid charges ever conceived after this. Fuel charge schmuel charge.

If I get a ticket on the train I expect it to cover the cost of train/track/station maintenance, staff costs, admin charges and the electricity/diesel used by the train. I don't pay for the fuel when I catch a cab, it's included in the fare. Why should aviation be different?

I could start an airline where you fly for free! Oh, of course I would charge a maintenance surcharge, a cabin crew surcharge, a pilot surcharge, a seat surcharge (refundable if you choose to stand :E ), airways surcharge, aircraft devaluation surcharge, security surcharge and a management bonus surcharge.

That'll be 350 pounds please. Oh, plus tax of course! But the ticket is free. Staff get 50% discount cause I'm nice.

Phoenix_X,

You are too late mate. A certain very western european airline in Blue yellow and I thikn white makes a lot of mine in this way.

By the way, the fine is paid to whom and does the SLF (who supposely (sp) paid higher fares) benefit in any substantial way?

Rwy in Sight

APA, coming your way!

Maybe the doubtless 'generous' severance packege pots for the two and perhaps any 'ex gratia' company money thrown into said pension pots could be recovered and go a little way to passing SOME profit share to those who have actually WORKED for the customers and a little cheer to shareholders?

Anyone know how big the 'parachutes' are?

Bet Jet2 are first in the queue to snap them up!

The question is, are these A319's going to be operated by BA or GB?:oh:

Since Iberian peninsular BA routes (& OneWorld) are projected as 757 ex-T3 once T5 opens, it seems likely that we will see mainline take LHR-AGP etc. whilst a blend of Airbii do it from LGW.

Club loads and load factor might even see a 767 on part of the LHR schedule...

Dangerous to allow logic to creep into the plan though!