Etihad to buy Olympic Airlines

[EK777-200LR]

Just heard from a friend in Greece, Etihad in partnership with PCP Capital Partners has been short listed as a prefered bidder for Olympic Airlines.

Qatar and Iberia dropped out.

Apparently in all the local media.

[saviboy]

I just read in aviation week that they are considering buying Air berlin.

[GrkPilot]

Yes it is true ..

Everyone interested has until the 30th of January to send their offers for Olympic Airlines.

[spierpoint jones]

Who cares....

jones:ok:

[Ancient Observer]

A couple of bits of management-speak might explain what is going on. 1st, the "industry shake-out" will continue, with only the strong - as in profitable and well-financed - surviving. Secondly, "consolidation" will continue, with the strong buying the weaker. That's why Lufthansa are buying whatever they can, and Etihad will need to join them to survive/prosper.
Once the current recession is over, the industry'd growth rate of c6% will kick back in. However, it will be tough, (with quite a few losers and redundancies) until late 2009/early 2010. Etihad is well-financed, and wants to play its part in the consolidation. I bet the top team's bonus is based on this.

[Skylion]

There are no rules in the aviation game. Consolidation, though fashionable, should not be seen as a "must". That just leads to panic buying,- eg BAs everlasting quest for a partner almost regarless of how the chemistry might or might not work. It's been bad enough with Qantas but with some of the others touted it would be/have been disasterous. BA/KL was probably the only one so far which would have worked for the British carrier but that was twice stuffed up late in the negotiations (in the last 24 hours on one of them) by their diplomacy being lacking. So... there are some carriers who will do successful mergers,- eg AF/KL but a lot for whom a merger will not deliver the alleged goods. Buying Olympic, just because it's there, doesn't make much sense for anyone. Why buy a loss making business full of political, industrial relations and financial nightmares? Success is unlikely and the amount of time spent in pointless and unpleasant aggravation is likely to be substantial so why do it? Some carriers will do fine by being highly focused and sticking to niches, while others, including Lufthansa and BA have the critical mass and network reach to go either way. The Gulf carriers , by virtue of their wonderful geographical location at a crossroads offering one stop from almost anywhere to almost anywhere else can probably do without consolidation other than probably amongst themselves with EK/EY as the prime candidate.

[Heleheleyani]

Poor dear 40&80

What's the reason for so much hatred for GF? Did they abuse you there? or did you get your free rating and ran away?

[auh_to_auh]

Not sure how it all works, but buying OA (or any other European carrier for that matter) would give them a nice gateway to a whole lot of european destinations that they can't access or have limited access to at this time. Would it not?

AUH

[gkaloy10]

Hello,

It was confirmed on the 5th of March that MIG has brought Olympic.

[wapses]

And now Aegean have put in a bid.

[Ancient Observer]

The boss-class at Etihad will have "take part in Aviation consolidation and acquire some airlines" in their bonus plan. I'm just surprised that they are moving so SLOWLY.

[fractional]

They've got the money...
EK yesterday, now OA and the list may well go on...

[GobonaStick]

Etihad was never interested in Olympic, it scotched that rumour about five minutes after it started. :=

[noflare]

If they have any sense they wont go anywhere near OA! :ugh:

[Cheechos]

Hi Grkpilot, just wondering if you have any info on rumours of OA hiring direct entry?