News notes from around the interweb:
- The Air Force’s strangely-modified Boeing 737-700
- Lithuania plans to launch its own new national airline what could possibly go wrong?
They’ve tried this before, by the way. flyLAL was the national airline – it shut down at the beginning of 2009. But COVID-19 is worse for airlines than the Great Recession, so now seems like the perfect time.
Credit: Arcturus via Wikimedia Commons - Lufthansa will pull out of Sabre next month. Shared on LinkedIn by American’s Vice President of Distribution Strategy
- Bankrupt Hertz is going to sell $1 billion in new stock and they say they expect investors to lose all their money
- Delta stops providing customer service on Twitter and Facebook
- Wynn Las Vegas buffet re-opens Thursday as more of a sit down dining, order a la carte as much as you’d like restaurant.
- How Europe’s low cost carriers are surviving without bailouts (HT: Dan R.)
At least it should be cheap to lease airplanes and find qualifies personnel. Growth rate should be amazing.
I’m with @ABC. Kind of the Warren Buffet contrarian approach to starting an airline.
Here in the US we tend to forget what is happening in the rest of the world.
There is no question, the Baltics are priming to become Europe’s tech hub. Fastest internet speeds in the world, temperate climate and plenty of water for cooling data/cloud server storage facilities, and a highly-educated 90% English-speaking population (under 30) with low labor and real estate costs. Very favorable corporate tax laws rivaling Ireland.. Super easy residence requirements which allow full access to the EU.
Once the Silk Road Transport Corridor and the Meridian Superhighway are completed–linking Beijing with Russia, onwards through Belarus and into Poland, and the Rail Baltica high-speed train service going from Finland-Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania-Poland is connected, there will be remarkable growth in the region. Estimates are 2026 for total completion.
Already the universities in Lithuania are offering full scholarships to Asian, African, and South American students for study opportunities. They are courting future Asian business, as well as African and South American enterprises in countries with advanced mining development.
This may not be quite the right time to start a new airline, but it won’t be too far off in the future that there will definitely be a market.
forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/07/10/the-western-europe-western-china-expressway-to-connect-the-yellow-sea-with-the-baltic/#1de8d7126c95
Yes, this could be the best time to launch a new airline. If you can round up the required resources and implement an operational and revenue model that is profitable under pandemic conditions, you should be in great shape as demand rebounds (partially or fully).