bmi takeover.....in next 4 years
 

It has been reported in today's Derby Evening Telegraph's Business Section, that bmi will be taken over by possibly, Lufthansa in the next couple of years. The quote is from a city banker.


Remember Basil Fawlty's famous words..... :)

Probably the same "City *anker" who has been forecasting the public float of the company in the next 2 years for the last 16 years! I recall that they said a similar thing about an SAS takeover when they took their 40% stake about 12 years ago. Got to get it right sometime though.

RAGBAG

I heard that a merger with Virgin was on the cards. Would make sense.

In the current climate, it is likely that European airlines will rationalise and merge with or buyout others. Many business analysts recently have said that within 10 years there will probably be around a dozen large airlines operating in Europe, as opposed to the 40 or so there are at present.

Some business analysts say that there will be three large airlines in very few years - Lufthansa, Air France and BA - plus a collection of low cost ones.

This was in (I believe) the FT earlier this week.

They started saying things like this a long time ago, but at the moment which two airlines are losing the most money, BA and UA. Is bigger necessarily better or are the big carriers too much of a dinosaur. Wouldn't smaller companies, linked under a larger umbrella company, be better. Still able gain from the synergy of the group, but small enough moe manoeuvrable in teh market place. Each company would be an individually managed business unit and expected to make a profit, easier to manipulate, and easier to get shot off if it doesn't show a return. Smaller groups of employees would be easier to control, they wouldn't all be able to go on strike at the same time. BA and UA look at losing large ammounts of money if their pilot work force walk out, so they end up caving in and paying out large salaries that may or may not be deserved by the individual employees.

On the Money Programme (7th November I think) they interviewed Michael O'Leary, CEO Ryanair, and he too said that in 5 years' time there would be the emergence of 3 "Super-carriers" and 1, possibly 2, low cost airlines.
Super-carriers would be AF, LH and BA. The low cost airlines would be Ryanair and possibly Easyjet.

We'll wait and see.....

so paris ,london and frankfurt will become the gateways to europe with the formation of these 3 super carriers. but shortly after someone will cotton on to the fact that 200 people a day are travelling rome-paris or dublin-london to go to say new york and will decide to set up a new transatlantic carrier in these countries and we will be back to square 1.well thats what i reckon anyway

Good post stalling attitude.

It amuses me to read the views of all these economists. Like all accountants they can't think beyond the bottom line or the bottom of their wallets.

When there are 3 major airlines in Europe the world of aviation is supposed to freeze like permafrost...for ever. According to them.

While there are still entrepreneurs out there, and people who want to get from A to B without having to go via C, there will always be new start ups.