British Airways To Become Spanish Airways?

British Airways news pic.twitter.com/pvgjqCMeLo

— Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) November 12, 2018

www.baisshite.com the latest news and views on British Airways, the world's "favourite" airline.

Turkeys Voting For Christmas

BA cabin crew have voted in favour of further strike action, 75% voted and of those who voted 78.5% voted in favour of ongoing strike action.

The outcome of this nonsense is rather predictable:

- Customers will be reluctant to book flights with BA
- BA will use the extra capacity from their new partner Iberia to cover any flight disruption in the UK
- The government will press ahead with anti strike legislation
- The BA brand will suffer
- BA cabin crew and their colleagues will end up losing their jobs

Turkeys really do vote for Christmas!

www.baisshite.com the latest news and views on British Airways, the world's "favourite" airline. This site contains updates on the ongoing strike action, and dispute between BA and Unite.

Farewell

At the end of trading today British Airways will have its name removed from the FTSE.

From Monday the shares will trade as International Airlines Group (the new name for the company that now also includes Spain's Iberia).

Today will also see the result of the BA cabin crew strike ballot (widely expected to be in favour of more strike action).

www.baisshite.com the latest news and views on British Airways, the world's "favourite" airline. This site contains updates on the ongoing strike action, and dispute between BA and Unite.

BA Merger With Iberia

It was announced today that BA may merge with Iberia, if a satisfactory resolution to BA's £2.6BN pension fund deficit can be found.

In the event that the merger does actually take place, I wonder what will happen to the price of flights to Spain?

See two articles I wrote in 2007:

The World's Costliest Airline

The World's Costliest Airline II

Will the consumer really benefit from this merger?

Walsh To Go - Eventually

Reuters report that British Airways (BA) is seeking to fill a new role of chief operations officer to replace two executives who "quit" in the wake of the Heathrow Terminal 5 fiasco.

Reuters note that the BA spokeswoman "declined to confirm reports in the Observer and Independent newspaper that a headhunter instructed by BA had been told to find a recruit who could be groomed to take over from BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh.

'It would be premature to say that,' the spokeswoman said".

In other news, to cheer up the long suffering passengers waiting at departure gates for their delayed BA flights, asap reports that according to the Association of European Airlines, British Airways has accumulated a record 43% of all its short and medium haul flights as delayed.

In 2007, the percentage of delayed BA flights was 29%.

This year's results place BA bottom in comparison with the 29 European carriers which have submitted statistics. As you can see from this site, I have certainly experienced quite a number of delays myself with BA.

BA's long haul flights were also showing the same level of delay, a decrease in efficiency from the same period last year.

Allitalia, Air France and Iberia manage to maintain 80% efficiency.

Why such a lousy performance by BA?

Seemingly T5 Heathrow has had a lot to do with it!

Given that Mark Bullock (Managing Director of BAA Heathrow) is leaving, following the T5 shambles (last week, MPs said the T5 fiasco had "made a fool out of the country" and called for an explanation), why does Willie Walsh still remain in his post?

Viva Espana

I see that BA may be bidding for Iberia (it already owns 10% of the Spanish airline).

I wonder what that will do to the price of tickets to Spain?

See my earlier articles on the subject, where I encountered an "issue" with the pricing of tickets on the BA and Iberia websites:

-The World's Costliest Airline

-The World's Costliest Airline II

Missing Airmiles

Sent to BA Executive Club:

"Please advise why the business class return flights that myself and my partner, made to Barcelona in July have not yet been uploaded onto our joint airmiles account?

Partner airline Iberia

Class Business

Gatwick outward bound to Barcelona 5 July
Barcelona inward bound to Gatwick 15 July

Thank you.

Kind regards

Ken Frost"

The World's Costliest Airline II

Martin Waller in today's Times takes up the point that I raised a few days ago about the pricing disparity between BA and Iberia for the same flight to Barcelona.

He notes that BA's explanation for this disparity -

"BA claims that this is because it has the cost of the flight, while Iberia is merely issued with its own allocation of tickets."

- hardly makes much sense.

He then raises the question as to what will happen to the BA/Iberia flight prices, in the event that BA make a bid.

Will BA drop their prices or will Iberia raise theirs?

Maybe this very valid question should be raised with the Office of Fair Trading?

The World's Costliest Airline

Here's a little conundrum for you.

What's the difference between the following?

A business class return air ticket for two people (Gatwick to Barcelona), flight to be taken in July, purchased via Iberia.

A business class return air ticket for two people (Gatwick to Barcelona), flight to be taken in July, purchased via BA.

In terms of the departure times, airport terminals, lounge facilities and airline operating the aircraft...no difference whatsoever.

The flights are operated by BA.

However, here's the rub.

The price of the two return tickets, if purchased via Iberia will set you back £455.80.

The price of the two return tickets (for the identical flight), if purchased via BA will set you back a stonking £1165.80 (256% of the Iberia price).

Don't believe me?

Try it for yourselves:

-www.ba.com

-www.iberia.com

Could BA please explain this differential?

Oh, and by the way, BA own 10% of Iberia.