British Airways chief: 30 airlines will go bust this year
 

Up to 30 more airlines will go bankrupt before Christmas, the chief executive of British Airways warned yesterday, as the biggest rescue of stranded passengers in travel industry history began.

Willie Walsh said the scenes of chaos in which 85,000 passengers have been stranded at locations around the world after the collapse of XL, Britain's third largest holiday company, would become a familiar sight as the travel industry struggled with soaring fuel costs and the effects of a global economic downturn. .......

more at: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/...ar-928774.html

That is vey scary and sobering at the same time.

Didn't two UK carriers bite the dust in the last couple of days?

No - one (XL) did

Since most observers put BA among the least likely operators to go bust, but rate a number of their competitors - such as UAL, SAS, Alitalia and Air Berlin - as a deal shakier, Walsh's "prediction" is just propaganda.

He would say that, wouldn't he? And it doesn't hurt his negotiations with his unions either.

Doesn't mean he's wrong. Just means he's talking his own book, and is no more a dispassionate expert on this than his adverts.

<i>No - one (XL) did</i>

Yes, but another UK tour operator also went under. Didn't look like they operated any planes, and it looked like a small-ish company, but that could be causing the confusion.