Tag Archives for british airways.
With Meghit done, and now after an interminable wait Brexit done as well, the U.K. is turning to new trade agreements where necessary in order to replace those they’d been covered by while part of the E.U. Indeed, the U.K. needs a deal with the E.U. along with myriad other countries.
The former U.K. ambassador to the U.S. has been a part of discussions, and has insight into both sides of discussions.
Last year Walsh sold over $4 million in IAG stock to fund a divorce. The board has been made aware of an ongoing relationship he’s had with an employee. However IAG denies this is the reason for his impending departure.
Willie Walsh is stepping down as CEO and from the board of of IAG, the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling effective March 26 and retiring June 30. He’s 58 years old and has talked about retiring by 60, though this is ahead of schedule. He’ll be replaced by Luis Gallego, CEO of Iberia – and not by the CEO of British Airways.
British Airways has a strangle hold on London’s Heathrow airport. A third runway at Heathrow would expand the airport’s capacity, and BA doesn’t want competition. However if a third runway does get built they believe that the majority of the extra capacity should be assigned to them (in the form of takeoff and landing slots).
>Here’s an interesting opportunity. South American mega-carrier LATAM flies to Easter Island. Easter Island is a Chilean territory, so LATAM Chile operates from Santiago.
Once a week on Mondays, though that Boeing 787 continues on from Easter Isand to Tahiti and returns to Easter Island on Tuesday. And award availability on that flight is really good.
British Airways has formed a joint venture with China Southern. British Airways has already moved its Beijing operations to the new Daxing airport there, and flights under the joint venture are for sale beginning January 2.
American owns a stake in China’s biggest airline but isn’t permitted to enter into a joint venture.
I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to the defendant here because New York JFK is, after all, owned by the Port Authority of New York New Jersey and it’s I think it’s reasonable to assume that’s just how business is done there.
BA announced the roll out schedule for their new business class seat. They hadn’t previously shared that Airbus A380s would ever get the new seat, though now we know they will. However the timetable to put new seats on their planes also reveals that it’ll be 2025 before the project is completed and that’s just for aircraft based at London Heathrow (and not Gatwick).
British Airways parent IAG held their version of Investor Day on Friday. The presentation (.pdf) clearly wasn’t geared towards customers, focused as it was on cost-cutting and promising not to grow their flights. They’ve always been probably too candid, even, at these events in describing how they plan to separate customers from their money.
Avios is a driver of profit, strong relative to size and regulation, but does less of a good job driving airline revenue that one would expect. Most program members are inactive, which isn’t surprising, and members prefer inflated award costs of cash co-pays (fuel surcharges).
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
