Branson: Airlines could go bust...

[scotspine]

"He said: 'We are not in the business of giving bailouts. Nor would the public expect us to. We don't see any public interest to be served by giving public subsidy.'"

i must have been delirious these past few months

[MrMark]

No doubt about it. BA are going bust.

Scary. At one point it looked likely that Iberia and BA were going to merge, and it was widely held that Iberia was the one in trouble... Wonder if they'll both go under?

Anyway, wasn't BA originally formed when the govt. had to buy up the remnants of two British air operators? [checks wikipedia]. Ah yes, here we go...

The British Airways Group was formed on 1 September 1974 through nationalisation by the (then) Labour Government. BA was formed from two large London-based airlines BOAC and BEA and two much smaller regional airlines Cambrian Airways Cardiff and Northeast Airlines Newcastle. All four companies were dissolved on 31 March 1974 to form British Airways (BA). The company was privatised in February 1987.

[Cyberman]

Scary. At one point it looked likely that Iberia and BA were going to merge, and it was widely held that Iberia was the one in trouble... Wonder if they'll both go under?

Anyway, wasn't BA originally formed when the govt. had to buy up the remnants of two British air operators? [checks wikipedia]. Ah yes, here we go...

BA was formed in a merger between public sector airlines BOAC and BEA around 1973/4. It has thus always been strongly unionised which has held it back in bringing in efficiencies, something that Virgin has not suffered and is therefore much more competitive.

The merger is being held back because yet again we have a company with a massive pensions deficit of 2.9 Billion pounds. Very worrying indeed if you have a pension with BA as it looks as if salary-linked pensions will have to be dumped at the very least and also BA will certainly not be making any large contributions for a while.

[MPwannadecentincome]

Bloomberg: Air Begorrah Will Abolish Checked Luggage to Reduce Costs

This has to be a joke! Its just a threat to the airports Ryanair do not want to pay the airport charges for transporting baggage.

That will make the queue for security about 10 times as long, never mind the nightmare of trying to put 3 or 4 'carry on' size bags through and retrieving them at the other end whilst repacking your toothpaste and laptop, putting your shoes, belt, jacket and coat back on!!

Also imagine all those discarded bottles of liquids that will not be allowed through.

Then once on board - a 20 minute delay whilst they faff around trying to tag and get the excess bags down into the hold!

[BolshieBastard]

Branson is such a egotistical tit!

His current tv airline advert makes all these noises about being 'Britain's flag carrier' blah, blah, blah and has flight attendants in short skirts and their tits bobbing up and down like rupert murdoch in the sea.

Shame then that branson's 'flag carrier' advert should show the date in American format ie June 22, 19XX instead of the British format of 22 June, 19XX!

[Cyberman]

With ref to Ryanair, it'll beat strikes by baggage handlers and allow cheap flights to continue. As I only ever carry carry-on baggage and 70% of others also, I have no problem with this.

[interested]

O'Leary

Forget the bit about carrying bags on (I never fly with these clowns)

There's some absolute gems there:

"Only Labour could invent a tax that penalises the poor and favours the rich," said Mr O'Leary. "The UK needs a new Government because they are a group of witless, hopeless Scots whose solution to the recession is to tax your way out. If that was the answer Ted Heath would have been elected for six successive terms."

[MPwannadecentincome]

? Robert Maxwell?

WHS