PPRuNe Forums - British airline industry- so many failures?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by NumptyAussie (Post 10581955)

you may be right, but I only know what I have read (i know Wiki can be manipulated) but I do welcome correction.

"Pan Am was forced to file for bankruptcy protection on January 8, 1991. Delta Air Lines purchased the remaining profitable assets...."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_..._World_Airways

"Under Icahn's direction, many of its most profitable assets were sold to competitors, much to the detriment of TWA.[35] Icahn was eventually ousted in 1993, though not before the airline was forced to file for bankruptcy on January 31, 1992.[36]"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_World_Airlines

You need to remember that - at least in the US - there are different types of bankruptcy. Chapter 8 means the business model is no longer viable and you're out of business - chapter 11 means you're business is still viable, but you need some 'help' with the debt burden to remain viable - under chapter 11 the business will maintain more or less normal operations. Both PanAm and TWA went the chapter 11 route and were then taken over - they never ceased operations.
The story is slightly complicated in the case of Pan Am because when they were taken over, Delta didn't want their east coast shuttle service - it continued on for a while under the Pan Am moniker but eventually collapsed under it's own weight and went the Chapter 8 route.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdracer (Post 10582550)

Isn't the definition of Chapter 11 more along the lines of "the airline is profitable if it's debts are written off"?

A few UK failures on this list ...

As well as closures, takeovers etc etc ...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...United_Kingdom

My 2 cents is that starting a business is relatively easy in the U.K.. Try starting an airline against the government owned flag carrier in other European countries and see how you get on.

Who could forget Brighton City Airlines? Well everyone I guess including me up until reading this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watson1963 (Post 10584393)

As well as closures, takeovers etc etc ...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...United_Kingdom

Annoyingly that list does not really distinguish between complete bankruptcies (eg Court Line), operational takeovers (eg Go by BA) and takeovers of a failing company before collapse under the guise of "merger". It also includes a few which perhaps were not airlines at all (depending on the definition) and omits some (eg Dragon Airways, mid-50s). Sometime I'll have a go at amending it perhaps.

This is true of aviation worldwide, and on a wider scale of business in general. They are not fixed entities, they rise and fall.

What you find is that over time many of the routes, the passenger numbers, even the crews, carry on from one to the next. It is just the corporate structures and the colour of the paint on the aircraft that come and go. Palma is still a huge destination from many UK airports, it's just that the airline names differ now from those of the 1990s, which in turn were different from those of the 1960s.

Did we mention Mediterranean Express, Birmingham Executive, Capital, Air Bridge, Air UK, Air Anglia, Buzz, London European, Sabre, BIA, Excalibur, Debonair?