Surprised no-one has already mentioned this, but in conjunction with the announcement of the BA/AA/IB tie-up, BA have announced that they are to bring back a direct flight between Heathrow and San Diego, starting in June 2011. The route was axed back in 2003.
Wille Walsh was speaking to Jeff Randall on Sky News earlier this evening and he was saying that this new joint venture with AA will mean that customers will be able to choose to fly to New York at least once an hour!
Not sure what SRB will think, last I heard was that if the BA/AA agreement got the green light, he said that VS might consider merging/taking over another carrier and joining a competing alliance to OneWorld (please let it be BD!:D)
By: David Kerr - 7th October 2010 at 23:48
also not revealed for some reason is that AA’s MAN-JFK route has been converted from seasonal to year-round. This emerged in advance of the press conference and I would have thought it worthy of a mention as it demonstrates what the possiblities are for linking hubs to secondary cities for year-round ops now that ATI is in place, and not just for peak summer ops outside ATI.
By: cloud_9 - 7th October 2010 at 23:25
BD may well have cash issues, and this will no doubt be causing quite a bit of concern for LH, which may well lead them to regretting the purchase of it, and could lead to a quick offload/sale before it becomes a “dead horse” so to speak.
SRB/VS could well consider the option of purchasing BD, re-branding and re-developing it into something as a subsidary of the Virgin group, thus giving VS entry into the Star Alliance?!
But to use a quote from Benji Dunn (expertly played by Simon Pegg!) in Mission Impossible III: “I don’t have any idea…I was just speculating!”:D
By: FrequentFlyer - 7th October 2010 at 22:54
according to the Daily Mail today BMI has cash issues, and Lufthansa seems to be propping them up, so I doubt a VS/BD merger will go ahead.
The link if anyone is interested:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1318311/BMI-s-owner-falls-deeper-red.html
By: gatwickjosh - 7th October 2010 at 15:44
If a takeover or merge with bmi is possible, do you think it would have much of an effect? Personally, I don’t.
I agree with you Mike. Both BA and BD cater to very different destinations from LHR. BD mainly serve mid-haul routes to the Middle East and Central Asia, with a few domestics and Europeans too. The overlap of BA/BD is very minimal that even if BD/VS did merge the impact would be nowt. Just a large slot holder at Heathrow really, which i suppose you could argue could be used to launch more transatlantic flights to compete with the others.
A merge with BD is really something that is unlikely to happen anytime soon, however, VS joining an alliance is a completely different story as it offers far more to them. Star probably being the best fit with CO and US, as well as BD.
By: KabirT - 6th October 2010 at 23:52
AA has also launched a host of routes into EU such as HEL, BUD etc.
By: T5 - 6th October 2010 at 23:47
Not sure what SRB will think, last I heard was that if the BA/AA agreement got the green light, he said that VS might consider merging/taking over another carrier and joining a competing alliance to OneWorld (please let it be BD!:D)
If a takeover or merge with bmi is possible, do you think it would have much of an effect? Personally, I don’t. The number of destinations served by bmi has been slashed in recent years and the airline’s fleet has shrunk quite drastically, too.
There are obvious advantages to the travelling public when looking at the British Airways and American Airlines partnership. A similar agreement between Virgin Atlantic and bmi is unlikely to offer any improvement over what is already being offered.
Sign In
October 6, 2010 at 11:12 pm