British Airways Considering Getting In Bed With Qantas

November 23, 2009 at 10:39 AM | by amandak | Comments (0)

British Airways CEO Willie Walsh is going around telling people (like Financial Times journalists) that he thinks a merger with Aussie airline Qantas could still happen. They talked about it last year but dismissed it as a bad idea, but now British Airways is considering nicer ways to ask.

Basically, Qantas is a successful airline on its own, even though their old CEO thought merging a good idea. So British Airways is now saying they could merge in the same way as they did with Spanish airline Iberia, which would still give Qantas a fair bit of autonomy.

One big problem for the rumored merger is the Aussie reaction to any proposals for it. Walsh described last year's merger talks as getting a "quite negative political reaction" Down Under; certainly proud Aussies who love their Flying Kangaroo probably want to keep it in Aussie hands. Add to this the fact that Qantas is in better financial shape than British Airways, and it seems like Willie Walsh might just be dreaming.

Jaunted

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