martytravels

BA may ditch OpenSkies as transatlantic flights dive

Richard Wachman
The Observer, Sunday 21 June 2009


British Airways is considering ditching its OpenSkies subsidiary, which operates flights from Paris and Amsterdam to the US, in a move that would reflect the ongoing severity of the recession and slump in business passengers on transatlantic routes.

Scrapping the operation would represent a dramatic volte face for the group, which only a year ago acquired a French airline, L'Avion, for £54m as part of plans to increase flights between France and America. The acquisition followed an Open Skies treaty that allowed EU operators to fly to the US from any European country, not just their country of origin. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...lantic-flights

yeadonite

That is sad it looks like such a good deal

Betsy

...but I hate to think of <i>any</i> transatlantic flight diving.

yeadonite

Good point Betsy

flanneruk

In the six months since the article concerned appeared, BA HASN'T sold Openskies - but HAS launched a new, all-Business, service between LCY and JFK.

My take, FWIW, is:
- in the list of BA's problems, the operating losses on its two all-Business services are about items nos 998 and 999
- no-one wants to buy Openskies, and closing or selling it means taking another £50 mn loss onto this year's P&L
- if it survives the next five years, BA's strategy will involve even greater dependence on premiumish long-haul and transatlantic services than right now
- I THINK Openskies operating costs are axctually closer to where BA wants to be than its mainstream ex-LHR longhaul/transatlantic services
- so they'll close shorthaul ops from Gatwick sooner than a service where they have a slightly unique offer from a major European city to New York.

rex

Watching/following all the speculative news over the possible collapse of one airline or another is an interesting exercise that can be both tedious and amusing. The collapse of l'Avion/OpenSkies has been discussed for well over a year.

In 2007/2008 (December to June), I followed the "anyday-now" stories of the collapse of Alitalia for well over six months (our entire family was holding tickets for a June flight, Palermo-LHR, which had no real good alternative) - - the panic/crisis stories came and went almost daily, as reported on flyertalk.com (and many "reliable" European newspaper sources)... but nothing really happened, including not much different nearly 24 months later.

I can't predict what will happen with l'Avion/OpenSkies anymore than I can foresee the future on anything else - - but I think you could buy tickets... make an alternative plans, according to your own needs for certainty/uncertainty protection - - and watch with fascination.

Best wishes,

Rex

yeadonite

flanneruk and Rex thanks so much. What about safety standard?

SuzChicago

If OpenSkies were to be scrapped, what happens to customers with tickets? We're booked on the airline between EWR & ORY in June 2010.

rex

Suz...

If there were no parent company, you might have more reason to be more concerned. I cannot imagine a scenario in which BA would leave the l'A/OS passengers truly hung out to dry. Worst case scenario, they would almost surely accommodate you on BA - - it might be coach, and you would have a very solid basis for insisting on a (partial?) refund if it were indeed coach... but to be left without service? I can not see that happening.

hetismij

Open Skies doesn't fly into Amsterdam, only Paris.