British Airways and Qantas Airways are reportedly in merger talks that may lead to a global airline. As you may be aware, British Airways and Australia’s Qantas Airways are competitors – primarily on routes to and from London’s Heathrow and Sydney, Australia. Yet, the two are looking past that, and they could fuse into an airline with 71 million passengers a year, 474 aircraft, and a route map that covers over 230 destinations across the world from their hubs in Australia and Britain.
In the past few years, we’ve seen a number of large airlines combine, such as: Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, KLM and Air France, and Ryanair is attempting to combine with Aer Lingus (but it’s not working). As we head into the recession (yes, it’s official), it might be good for large carriers to combine.
Many people question whether it’s possible to create one large airline from two airlines that are based in different countries. It is a very difficult and tiresome process, but it can be done. Yet Australia, who owns 51 percent of Qantas, said that they have no intention of removing the cap. I’m curious to see how that affects the talks.
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1 Comment
December 3, 2008 at 8:38 AM
Eh, I think competitors might be too strong a word. Qantas and BA (well, what eventually became BA) have had a long history. They both share an alliance. Until 2004 BA owned 25% of Qantas, and they might do something like that again, as I believe Australia has some rules on foreign ownership.