Europe: September 2008 Archives

That was the text message I received this morning from a friend informing me that a certain airport in the south of England was up for sale.

The airport in question? London Gatwick of course.

So BAA and owner Ferrovial have given in to the inevitable break-up of its Gatwick/Heathrow/Stansted threesome and announced it will sell. The competition authorities in the UK have already said they will most likely demand BAA sell at least one of them (and don't rule out a forced Stansted sale as well).

The asking price will be north of £2 billion, and it could fetch a lot more. My features editor Kerry Ezard was recently in Adu Dhabi and the airports group there has expressed an interest. Others mentioned by pundits are Macquarie Airports, Hochtief, The Virgin Group and Manchester Airport Group.

We've already said this is good thing.

Last week I was interviewed by a journalist at UK newspaper The Independent about whether more airlines are likely to go bust in the wake of the XL collapse.

It was strange being on the receiving end of being interviewed rather than doing the interviewing myself. Anyway, today I went to their website to see what my words looked like in print only to find that I'd been quoted as "Kenny Ezard" instead of Kerry. Harrumph - how many women have you heard of called Kenny?! Here's a link to the article.

The week before I was interviewed by the Daily Mail newspaper. Now I don't normally have a positive word to say about the Daily Mail, but in fairness to them at least they spelled my name right!

In this column penned for the Daily Mail - but impossible to find on the newspaper's own trashy website so I've linked to it via this site - British Airways boss Willie Walsh explains why consolidation is needed in the airline business.

That's not a new thought, but it's well argued and the reference to Virgin boss Richard Branson as the oldest rocker in town is a gas.

Branson himself has plenty to say on the subject as well - consolidation that is, not rocking.

That well-respected airline analyst at ABN Amro, Andrew Lobbenberg, has pointed the readers of his regular industry commentaries to this piece on the website of the UK's Times newspaper. And following his lead I will too.

It is a graphic example, in the UK at least, and I am sure readers around the globe can offer similar ones, of carriers slashing fares to keep people flying.

In this case the story is not about the economy section as such but about great offers on business class fares from British Airways, bmi and Virgin Atlantic.

Now here at Reed (the parent of Airline Business/Flight) we are not allowed to fly business but I can tell you the same applies to Premium Economy fares.

I recently booked a New York return with BA in this souped up economy class for just over £600 return - now that's not a half bad price.

Not content with throwing the Virgin brand behind a string of airlines, a radio station, a media company and even cola, Sir Richard Branson is now reported to be mulling a bid for London's Gatwick Airport as part of a consortium.

The UK's Daily Telegraph quotes Branson as saying he is "open to being courted by anyone who is interested in bidding" for Gatwick, should BAA eventually be ordered to sell two of its London airports, as has been recommended by the Competition Commission.

What an interesting development that could be. With the long-simmering rivalry between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways hotting up again amid BA's third attempt to secure antitrust immunity with American Airlines, one can only imagine the sparring that might take place if Virgin became the owner of one of BA's biggest bases!

Whatever ends up happening to Gatwick, most of the people I've spoken to who have used the facility believe things can only get better under new ownership.

A recent example is a colleague of mine who was on a flight from Austria to Heathrow earlier this week. His flight circled Heathrow for 40 minutes, unable to land, and instead decided to land at Gatwick.

Once on the ground at Gatwick, he and other passengers were forced to remain on the aircraft for THREE HOURS because...wait for it...there were no stairs available to allow them to disembark. You couldn't make this stuff up!

It helps to speak Icelandic to get all of this clip, produced by Sveinn Gdmarsson, the London correspondent of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, but yours truly is in there giving the Airline Business perspective of the industry's outlook.

That bit, you'll understand, but the rest of it you won't because it is in Icelandic, unless of course you come from the island. In it, I make the hardly earth-shattering revelation that more airline failures are likely in the second half. This was shot before the Zoom grounding, so my prediction already came true.

The INBS naturally keeps tabs on its home flag carrier Icelandair. Sveinn tells me the latest from the north is that it has announced further lay-offs. I can't confirm this because all the newspaper reports in the past few days are in Icelandic - can anyone help?