Sabena Today!!! Who will be the next so-called flag carrier.

[celticflyer]

Commercial Aviation is changing,

One particular Irish Man of the name Michael o'Leary has been making similar comments for a long long time, Its time for the great BA and Aer Lingus to listen to the wise man from Co. Tipperary on his advise to making PROFITS in the aviation.

Posted in the Irish Independent on Tuesday 6 November: Operating revenues rose to 193.4m euros for the quarter ended September 30 compared with 134.6m euros last time, while pre-tax profits rose to 74.9m euros compared with 56.4m euros. The shares rose 13pc in response. The strong quarterly results mean that Ryanair's pre tax profits soared by 30pc to 102.4euros for the first half compared with 78.8m euros.
Ryanair also said yesterday it was in expansion mode, while traditional flag carriers cut capacity. The airline is taking delivery of 13 aircraft this year and may order up to 50 new aircraft.(end)

On the other hand BA operate's each day with a loss of £2m. It is not outside the bounds of possibility that such Airlines as BA and Aer Lingus will follow Sabena into backruptcy with problems in efficiency that have been around long before Sep 11.

[HugMonster]

If money is all that matters to you, then fine. But I feel rather sorry for you.

[akerosid]

The Irish government may well be looking with interest at the Belgian solution; i.e. if EI goes into bankruptcy, private investors will come along and start a new airline from scratch. However, this underlines the difference between the Irish and Belgian situations.

On the one hand, Sabena has been a perennial basket case; how one could be based in the centre of Europe, with all the international and EU agencies (and the F/C class revenue that goes with that) and NOT make a profit defies belief.

Aer Lingus on the other hand, has managed to eke out a reasonable existence as a peripheral carrier; it had been getting its act together, particularly since 1993, had a good fleet and despite the government working against it on US access issues (the $%£^!!&* stopover), it managed to make a success out of this route. Despite being seen as a political instrument, it did a good job and it can hardly be blamed for the fact that its main market was effectively sliced in two overnight. Was it overstaffed? Yes, but did the government stand up to the unions in 1993 and insist on compulsory redundancies? No.

The problem for the Irish government is that if it seeks a Belgian solution, the new investors may require a much freer hand than the government ever gave EI and that will more than likely include axing the 50:50 link between Dublin and Shannon. Is it really prepared for this?

[The Guvnor]

HugMonster - if I was a shareholder in BA I'd be rather upset with them. If I was a shareholder in FR I'd be extremely happy. As you're well aware, it's the shareholders who are the owners of the company and the days of airlines being government owned dumping grounds for the unemployed are (or should be) over - at least in Europe.

Nor is it just the shareholders who have a very keen interest in the company's financial stability. If I worked for BA, I'd be getting very concerned - not only about its financial stability but also job security. FR, on the other hand, continues to expand and take on employees - even if they do have to pay for their own ratings if not already qualified on type!

Having all of your eggs in one basket is never a clever idea.

[yaffel1]

Not as clear cut as that Guv. Ryanair have never paid a dividend because they don't give a stuff for the shareholders, BA has every year till now. People invest in Ryanair because they expect the share price to go up so they can cash in. If (and it's a big if right now) Ryanair have a bad patch their share price will likely plummet because there's no point in holding them and they've never cultivated the City.

Got to admire their strategy but it's dangerous if things start to go wrong.

[Max Continuous]

Hugmonster,

"If money is all that matters to you, then fine".

What possible reason is there to be in business, any business, if not to make money?

[sgt.culpepper]

Max continuous, and when you've made money .....even more than you can spend what then?. on second thoughts I suppose you could get married!

[Expedite your backtrack!]

Personally I think that VLM should take over as Belgian Carrier.

Best flyers I have ever seen (and I have never heard them winge) - just don't give them Jets, as they are are lethal enough just flying F50s! :D :D :D

[Red Four]

EYB, well done VLM taking over the EBBR route, hope you make more of it than SABENA. If you dont want jets, but need the capacity of jets, I'm sure Flightline could help you out.

[fionan]

Max Continuous have you seen what money has done to M O'L. It is not worth that level of derangement!