London's airlines, airports and routes.
International Airlines Group (“IAG”) confirmed today that its offer to acquire the 54% of Vueling’s shares that it does not already own has been accepted by the majority of Vueling’s shareholders.
This means that IAG will control just under 91% of Vueling, effectively giving it control of the airline. Vueling will officially become part of IAG from Friday 26 April 2013.
Continue reading “International Airlines Group gains control of Vueling”
The offer by International Airlines Group (“IAG”) to acquire the 54% of Vueling’s shares that it does not already own expired on Friday 19 April 2013.
The airline group initially made an offer priced at €7.00 per share which Vueling management chose not to recommend. IAG subsequently increased its offer to €9.25 per share. However, the minimum acceptance level was reduced to just 4.16% of Vueling’s capital to leave IAG with at least overall control of Vueling, if not 100% ownership.
Assuming the transaction completes this will be the second airline acquired by IAG since its formation in 2011 and the third member airline of the group (the first acquisition, bmi, being subsumed into British Airways).
Continue reading “What does International Airlines Group have planned for Vueling?”
International Airlines Group has just announced that it has ordered 18 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft for British Airways for delivery between 2017 and 2023 and has secured a further 18 options. The group has also secured delivery slots for Iberia, in anticipation of a future order for Iberia, subject to a satisfactory restructuring of the airline.
This follows the recent exercise of 18 Boeing 787 options for BA and acquisition of 787 delivery slots for Iberia and both airlines are moving towards a common long-haul fleet.
Whilst this is not the first long-haul order for Airbus by either BA or IAG, for Airbus this is still a significant long-haul order by BA as the A350-1000 aircraft is likely to form a major part of BA’s long haul fleet as a replacement for the Boeing 747-400.
Here are a few new & noteworthy items for today, Sunday 21 April 2013:
Lufthansa flights next week are to be disrupted by industrial action by staff (Lufthansa)
Qantas’ retreat from Europe concludes with the end of its service from Sydney to Frankfurt (Plane Talking)
Iberia imposes further pay cuts on staff under the terms of arbitration as productivity talks with the unions fail to conclude (the pilots union SEPLA did not attend the talks) but has offered to reverse the cuts if talks successfully resume.
An Open Skies agreement between the EU and Israel has prompted industrial action by El Al staff (Bloomberg)
Alitalia still in a parlous financial condition (Financial Times)
When BA’s parent company, International Airlines Group, bought bmi last year much was made of how the extra slots would enable BA to expand its long-haul network. So it was something of a surprise when last May BA announced it would launch new routes to Leeds-Bradford (initially 4 daily) and Rotterdam (3 daily) from 9 December 2012.
Neither are the most exciting destinations on the BA route network but both seem like a clear move to capture traffic from KLM.
Continue reading “So how are BA’s routes to Leeds-Bradford & Rotterdam performing?”
British Airways has confirmed today that its (near) daily flight to Bangkok, BA9, will undergo a change of departure terminal at Heathrow, aircraft type and timing from the start of the Winter 2013 season on Sunday 27 October 2013.
The flight which currently departs from Heathrow Terminal 3 at 22:05 to arrive in Bangkok at 15:20 will transfer to Terminal 5 from 27 October 2013.
The operating aircraft will also a change from a four class Boeing 747 to a three class Boeing 777.
Furthermore, the departure time will change to 15:05, arriving in Bangkok at 09:20 and returning from Bangkok at 10:55 to arrive at Heathrow at 16:55. This is also the last BA operated long-haul flight to transfer from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5.
Continue reading “BA9 to Bangkok: A new Heathrow terminal, aircraft and timing”
An 11 hour transatlantic flight from San Francisco to London in a passenger configured BA aircraft may not seem the most conducive environment for 100 thinkers to come up with solutions to the world’s problems, but BA thinks otherwise with the launch of Ungrounded.
Continue reading “BA launches “Ungrounded” – An innovation lab in the sky”
Here are a few new & noteworthy items for today, Monday 15 April 2013:
Air France-KLM has lined up two potential bidders (ASL Aviation and Intro Aviation) for its London City short-haul airline CityJet (Irish Times)
The Centre for Aviation looks at British Airways’ long-haul fleet replacement plans (Centre for Aviation)
CAPA also compares the virtual networks of Qantas and Virgin Australia (Centre for Aviation)
Sir Richard Branson complains about the “Big Three” US airlines and the competitive activity by United against Virgin America. This is the same Richard Branson that owns 51% of Virgin Atlantic, with the remaining 49% owned by its forthcoming joint-venture partner Delta.
Finally, Qantas unveils its new uniforms today (Qantas Newsroom)
Here, somewhat belatedly, are details of terminal changes for flights departing from London Heathrow from 31 March 2013.
Continue reading “London Heathrow Terminal Changes from 31 March 2013”
Our archive collection and commentary of British Airways’ most memorable TV advertisements over the past 40 years.
British Airways has a long history of producing some of the most memorable TV advertisements with the aid of its advertising agencies (formerly Saatchi & Saatchi/M&C Saatchi and more recently BBH).
As well as simply being enjoyable to watch, the ads provide a commentary on both the changes in the air travel industry over the past three decades and changing social attitudes.
Continue reading “A look at British Airways’ most memorable TV advertisements”