July 15, 2002 at 2:31 pm
From today’s FT. This one (Alitalia funding) looks like it is going to run an run if they end up at the European Court
British Airways and Iberia, the Spanish flag carrier, are expected to seek
approval from the European competition authorities later this month for a
joint venture on routes between the UK and Spain.
Separately, BA and four European airlines – KLM, Lufthansa, SAS Scandinavian
Airlines and BMI British Midland – have joined forces to protest to the
European Commission about its recent controversial approval of a EU1.4bn (£900m) recapitalisation of Alitalia, loss-making, majority state-owned
Italian carrier.
Noah
By: Noah - 17th July 2002 at 10:55
RE: Alitalia decision challeng
😀
By: mongu - 16th July 2002 at 22:37
RE: Alitalia decision challeng
Just Wait…
“AIR FRANCE RECEIVES $9999999999999999 IN SUBSIDY – FAIR, SAYS CEO”
By: Noah - 16th July 2002 at 10:28
RE: Alitalia decision challeng
It seems to me that there is more to the BA/Iberia deal than just code sharing, but so many of these grand moves end up fizzling out once the practicalities come to be worked out. It would be good to know what people think on this one.
With regards to Alitalia, of course subsidies in theory should not play a part, but can anyone seriously imagine any Italian government letting the airline go to the wall?
The way the EU has approved the refinancing shows how much pressure there must be from the Italian side and unless the airlines that have made the complaint are prepard for a lenghty (and costly) process at the European Court, the Alitalia decision is likely to stand.
Noah
By: keltic - 15th July 2002 at 22:29
RE: Alitalia decision challeng
>From today’s FT. This one (Alitalia funding) looks like it
>is going to run an run if they end up at the European Court
>
>
>British Airways and Iberia, the Spanish flag carrier, are
>expected to seek
>approval from the European competition authorities later
>this month for a
>joint venture on routes between the UK and Spain.
>
>
BA and Iberia have already a codeshare in most of their flights from Spain and the UK. So would the new agreement mean that we would be seeing, for example, BA planes flying for IB flights?. That would be simply great, at least for me. As far as Alitalia is concerned, subsudies, appart from being unfair with independent carriers, are an artificial way to support an airline, which sometimes doesn´t serve the community, with public money. So no more subsudies for anyone.
By: mongu - 15th July 2002 at 20:07
RE: Alitalia decision challeng
In theory, BA are correct. The Alitalia recapitalisation is illegal – the airline must sink or swim of its own accord.