Now let me see....

BA starts up low-cost airline to compete with its own product.

BA changes its mind and sells low-cost airline for not much money

Low-cost airlines thrive, and look to be the future in Europe

BA modifies its product to compete with the burgeoning low-cost carriers

BA's former offspring is sold for almost four times what BA got for it.

BA now has no serious low-cost product, but has helped to create a formidable competitor.

Now that's what I call management!

Splonguk, just a small point but when exactly did go "conquer" Spain? I think easy might have the market share, with 27 flights a day to Spain (if you include PMI), and 3 a day ( I think) to Madrid, a route which go pulled out of some time ago!

Regards, :D

I am constantly fascinated by the likes of Amazon man. They work for an organisation with absolutely no scruples when it comes to trying to get rid of the opposition and yet they have this desperate need to be loved by the rest of us and can't understand why we don't want to.

Lord King and his merry men honed-up a wonderful Dirty Tricks Department that ruined the careers of hundreds and hundreds of pilots (including me). I do not remember receiving anything more than token sympathy from the BA pilots of the day.

I hope the easyJet buyout of Go proceeds. The combination could produce some real competition.

According to the ft the airline will just be called EASYJET.
Barbara will walk with between 14 to 20 million inher purse.
It will all c0me out in the wash.

Roobarb,

we didn't fly into Bergamo. But Milan Linate. All the airports Go fly into are the major internationals which BA does- with the exception of Rome (CIA).

I know you don’t fly to Bergamo, that’s precisely my point. What was the point of competing head to head with your premium product? Milan/Linate generates a large volume of premium traffic, it’s popular with the Milanese, (unlike Malpensa) and is a feeder for BA longhaul from Fortress Heathrow. GO chases a completely separate market, ie the low fare point to point passengers. Flying to Bergamo (which we used to from LHR) is also popular with the Milanese, but would not be the airport of choice for the business traveller. The list of alternative airports is long and RyanAir have expolited some useful ones. I would have offered Rotterdam, Hamburg, Nurnburg, Schonefeld, Malmo, Bromma, Bergen, Orly, Lyons, Perpignan, Bordeaux, Malaga, Oporto, Faro, Bratislava, Ostrava, Bergamo, Ciampino, and Pafos. To name but a few.

All these destinations would have covered popular tourist destinations, with connections for those business travellers without an expense account None of these destinations are served from Fortress Heathrow and so the two products would have complimented each other, not competed with each other.

I have no problem at all with the low fares option, but it has to be carefully placed within your product range. You must protect brand and product, I don’t think you’ll find many other successful companies who have launched two products that compete with themselves. It’s common sense.

The notion to be involved with the low fare sector was correct, the implementation was wrong.
http://www.80scartoons.8k.com/roobarb6wee.gif

JB 007

"Isn't BA's core business long haul?"

No it is not. Perhaps you are too young to remember BEA and BOAC, companies which were merged to form BA.

Futhermore, if the guy you odiusly ask the question, "are you management by any chance?" is indeed management, does this mean that his opinion is automatically tainted, or perhaps he does not even warrant having said opinion?

Management and an entrepreurial vision probably arranged for you to have a job in our business in the first place.

JB007
 

Despite what you think of BA and it starting GO and selling it off - Guess who Guarantee's the leases for GO's 737's whilst they expand!

10 Points! - Good Old British Airways.

;)

Is this a done deal??

Call me a cynic - but won't all this speculation do wonders for EZY's share price - yeah got that one right didn't I???
How about "EasyGoing" for a moniker??

DO YOU THINK THEY WOULD WANT THEM STOP STOP!

Supposing 'GO' is sold for 400 million do any 'GO' pilots have an idea how much we will be given for our share options?;)

Virgin Express want a piece / Cassani unhappy
 

Looks like Mr Branson has realised that his beloved VEX might be left peeing in the wind. Virgin Express have expressed an interest in 'co-operating' with EasyJet once it acquires Go.

On another note, Babs is apparently unhappy at 3i's decision to sell Go (even if she is going to get a big fat cheque from it).

Read it all on FT.com here.

Shame, I rather liked Go and their brand. Stelios has already said publicly that none of the Go branding or livery would be retained, Easyjet is definitely 'acquiring' not 'merging'.

Extended Range: the ordinary Go staff own 10.5% of the company. If it is sold for 400 mill then 10.5 % is 42 mill. I think there are 900 employees....

Can it be that simple?

I doubt it would be that simple and besides i don't believe the 'ordinary staff' as you so elequently put it owned any of Go. Wasn't it majority owned by 3i ( 67.5% ) and then Barclays Private Equity ( 10% ) and the rest ( 22.5% ) by Babs and her senior managers.
As for share options being of any value, again a little unlikely as it was still in Private hands, having not yet been floated.
I'm afraid as always it likely to be the big earners making the big dosh!!

JB007, JW411

Not management and only in BA because my company was bought out and yes fully aware of what BA management are capable of in the dirty tricks department, Iam a former employee of an airline where BA was rumoured to have had a big hand in trying to bring the business down, though nothing was ever proven.

But heartily sick of people like yourself who somehow seem to take great delight in the misfortune of others, I have been unfortunate to have been made redundant several times in my flying career and I wouldn't wish it on any other pilot, British Airways Pilots are not your enemy they're like yourself just trying to earn a living, maybe not having always lived in the real world but gradually becoming used to it with the rise of the so called budget airlines.

The aviation business used to be full of polite and pleasant people that was the joy of being in aviation, people like yourselves just mirror what is happening in society as a whole, if you have nothing to say but make comments along the lines of seeing BA out of the shorthaul market which would of course have the effect of putting BA pilots out of work than perhaps its better not to say anything at all.

Here endeth my diatribe.

Only A Few More Seasons - you sound a tadge bitter-and-twisted old son - in that, reading between the lines of your post, it might seem that you're miffed that somebody did rather better out of their investment than you did (from their investment).

Q). Would you please enlighten us as to your personal financial contribution (i.e. investing serious amounts of your own money) in to any airline venture that you have been involved with - and what was the outcome ?

It might seem that somewhere along the road you've got it into your head that it's a crime to make big bucks - well it's not. Indeed if you invest YOUR money in a venture then it's only reasonable to have a return on that investment, i.e. you're the one who's taking the initial risks (not the employees - they're getting paid, you might not be), and with that, the risk of losing it all, deserves a payback down the road.

As is often said, "Money makes money" and "You've got to speculate to accumulate".


Uhm (hence the edit), what happened to the post by 'Only A Few More Seasons' that was immediately above this one - it's disappeared ?!........ Ah, hold on one minute, I've still got the orginal cached in my browser, so here it is.......

'Only A Few More Seasons' wrote:

Quote:

---

Never trust venture-capitilists they are only in it for the dosh.

A bit of history - Brad Burgess/Rob Wright gave 3i their first profitable interest in airlines when they sold Connectair to Air Europe in the 80s - both BB/3i have been milking airlines/the system ever since.

Oh and by the way (history repeats itself) watch Astreaus another Burgess deal with Aberdeen ------whatever they are called another venture dosh deal.

I bet Babs won't be on the bottom of the seniorty list of the next company she joins either!!

---

Duh, as if being in it 'only for the dosh' is some sort of crime.

So OAFMS, please grow up mate, either that or go back to your Communist utopian dream !

E.g. What's the difference between a (sustainable) privately owned company, and one that's (unsustainably) owned by The State ? Answer = Profits !

Ps. Your understanding of correct spelling is pretty p!ss-poor too, e.g.

capitilists = Capitalists
Astreaus = Astraeus
seniorty = seniority

Uhm, so maybe you should take your hard earnt 'dosh' and invest in a spell-checker; I'll hazard a guess that it'll almost certainly yield a higher return than your comprehension of 'free-market-forces' ever will ! ;)

Amazon Man:

"The aviation business used to be full of polite and pleasant people.....".

I actually thought things had improved on that front over the last 40 years.

You're not one of those Dan chappies who happened to have a 737 rating when BA bought them out are you? If so, that could hardly be counted as a disaster could it?

Ok chaps and chapess's

Steady on!!

Does anybody actually have any updated information on this topic??

What are peoples opinions on how this potential 'acquisition' will affect flightdeck recruitment with easyJet?

Amazon man
 

Well I'm ex- Dan Air and was thrown to the wolves by a certain Company. Out of a job for a long time thanks to them. Its about time thier arragance was rewarded. :mad: We have long memories. ;)