Rumour: GB Airways to become full subsidiary of BA.
 

Hi

This is a big rumour among various press offices at LGW at the moment. Kevin Hattons appointment as cheif of GB has started it. Personally i think KH took a wonderful airline (BY) and let TUI ruin it before he left. Lets hope GB doesn't follow suit under his leadership.

Here we go again......more rumours with no substance.

BA can not afford to buy GB, even if it was for sale. The price tag would be £100 to £150 million. BA has billions of debts which need to paid off, there is the pension deficit to pay off, and of course they need to think about borrowing for fleet replacements 737, 767, 747 eventually etc.

£150M is peanuts for BA and the overall debt is now lower than the cash reserves, so pension deficit aside BA is now in the black. £150M would also be a very reasonable price for all those GB slots at LHR. Still don't think it would happen though.

And the name of this website forum is.............Professional pilots FACT network? No. Wind yer neck in matey!

GB Airways
 

GB Airways is NOT for sale!!! Thats from James himself!

GB (including BMed) would of course be a very good starting point for the BA2 I suggested over on the strike thread. Along the lines of Swiss/Crossair etc.
Don't forget Nigel that not all those who drive a jet with BA written on the side are BA pilots, you are replaceable.

Speedmarque......Come on then ..Your press office connections ..spill the beans .....MORE RUMOURS then I'll wind my neck in MATEY.:}

Why would BA be interested? Four years ago maybe, but BAs shorthaul costs have come down comparatively since then so what would they be buying?
Poor routes: we no longer have the 'niche' market in Iberia that we once did. The GB Board have stood by and let the low cost operators swamp the routes that once made the money. We are hamstrung by the franchise and have to fly further for less yield to try to stay afloat.
There is no way flying an A320 or 321 for 5-6 hours with 30-50 passengers on board is going to make money. Now fuel prices are so high the operating cost of a 320 must be approx £3750 per hour. 5 times that is about £18000. Each punter would have to pay about £120 each way plus taxes for a full aircraft to make any money to e.g. Paphos. We are not full and they are not paying anything like that!
Notice the low cost carriers rarely have sectors of more than 2.5 hours. There is a sound commercial reason for that.
If you think the next BA comedian is going to be an improvement on Johnny Vegas forget it. If he was any good BA then TUI would not have let him go.
The board needs a proper strategy if they are to save this once proud airline.
I suggest: stop selling Full Service tickets at less than low cost fares in aircraft with 30% fewer seats. Oh and if the board learned some basic maths that would help, shoes and socks off if they run out of fingers. Otherwise bye bye GB.

Furthermore ... whilst LHR slots are something that BA are still prepared to spend capital reserves on, I don't believe GB have more than a very few (if any) LHR slots, and the thread started off talking about GB Airways rather than BMed anyway.

Predominately, GB operate from LGW (with a few recent MAN routes). BA (imho) are certainly not interested in picking up any LGW slots whilst our own LGW operation is itself under scrutiny once again. Until BA can get our own cost base under control (excess staff numbers due restrictive practices and massive central overheads foe example), then incorporating GB into BA would just increase the losses at LGW. BA get more out of the arrangement through franschisiing fees from GB than they would by buying it and bringing it in-house.

Well said Major C S.

CRIPES and BLIMEY. GB are a small efficient and focused little outfit making a bit of money in a tough market. So obviously BA will buy them just to arse it all up. Isn't that what they do? They are like a scorpion. British Regional Mark 2

Well, with the announcement of Gary David (Managing Director) being suspended from Cadogan Holidays last week - who knows whats going to happen.

New GB Airways Routes
 

Rumour has it that GB are looking to start some more new routes from Manchester. Interestingly, Moscow and Athens have been mentioned.

Any more info available?

Not trying to be rude here or anything but why isn't this in the 'MANCHESTER' thread?!

Coz its quite rightly in the airlines,airports and routes thread

Yes but it's to do with Manchester airport of which there is a long thread running on.

Perhaps people are interested in hearing about particular airline developments rather than wading through 10 pages of tosh about an airport and its dispute with ramp handling staff

Obviously so! with not one relevent answer so far...:hmm:

So why reply thrice then? :confused:

Anyway, can't really see Moscow and Athens, Moscow as I don't think the CX proposol for HKG-SVO-MAN is dead yet, and ATH-MAN, I think BA Mainline would rather keep them connecting though LHR.