Virgin Atlantic ottiene 12 slots a Heathrow


londonfog

londonfog

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Premetto che io vivo a Londra e per questo non sono necessariamente Anglofilo (la realta' quotidiana ti rende agnostico :) ). Si e' fatto tanto parlare di slot a Linate. Questo e' un esempio di una cessione di slots in un aeroporto veramente saturo.

Come si deduce dall'articolo sul Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/38e70fb8-31a3-11e2-92f0-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Celm346A

Virgin ha vinto 12 preziosissimi slots ma li puo' utilizzare solo per un ventaglio ristretto di destinazioni: Edinburgo, Aberdeen, Nizza, Cairo e Ryadh. Tutte destinazioni coperte dalla ex-BMI (ora integrata in BA) che o hanno bisogno di un concorrente a British Airways (Edinburgo e Aberdeen) o venivano gestite da BMI in concorrenza con BA (Nizza e Cairo) o comunque non sono, per il momento, esercitate da BA.

Questo dovrebbe insegnare qualcosa per la gestione degli slot ceduti dall'Alitalia per garantire concorrenza fra Roma e Milano
 
L'Economist scommette su un ingresso di Virgin in SkyTeam... stento pero' a vederne l'utilita' per VS sinceramente.
Interessante il passaggio in cui si afferma che il 25% dei pax di VS a LHR originava da bmi...

Virgin Atlantic
Desperately seeking
Dec 3rd 2012, 11:18 by C.S.


VIRGIN ATLANTIC is stuck in a rut. The airline’s latest annual results showed a pre-tax loss of £80m [$128m] and it recently saw bmi, a key partner, snapped up by arch-rival British Airways. Sir Richard Branson, Virgin’s billionaire founder, may well be distracted by grand projects like space tourism, which he hopes to launch next year. But for now he needs to focus his attention on his airline.

Sir Richard’s pride in Virgin Atlantic’s independence means that the airline has consistently refused to enter one of the world’s three air alliances. It teamed up instead with bmi, which flew Scottish and European passengers to London Heathrow, where they could transfer onto Virgin’s long-haul services to destinations further afield. This arrangement worked almost too well: by 2010, about 25% of all Virgin passengers came from bmi. That was a lot of eggs for one basket, but Sir Richard gambled that Lufthansa, bmi’s owner as of 2009, would never sell to British Airways, a mutual enemy. His gamble failed. Lufthansa sold bmi to British Airways for £173m in April and the cosy arrangement with Virgin died.

At a stroke, a quarter of Virgin’s passengers vanished. Insiders report a steep fall in ticket sales to non-US destinations, while managers are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to fill seats—the latest, “Seat Plus”, implores customers to guarantee themselves more personal space in economy class by booking two seats instead of one.

More sensibly, Virgin has resolved to build its own short-haul network: from next spring, it will fly to Heathrow from Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen in an effort to feed traffic into its more profitable long-haul flights. But building a short-haul network from scratch at Heathrow, where take-off and landing slots are so scarce that they change hands for millions, will be tricky; and replicating the extensive reach of bmi’s network will be impossible. In October, Virgin was denied the right to fly to Moscow, and there is still no sign of a promised route to Nice.

So analysts think that Virgin might finally be forced into promiscuity. Joining an airline alliance would give the carrier instant access to its partners’ customers and perhaps even give it the traffic necessary to launch routes to more cities in emerging markets—something that excites Britain’s business lobby.

Since Singapore Airlines, a Star Alliance member, owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic, some think Star is Virgin’s most likely bedfellow. But Virgin’s route network overlaps with those of existing Star Alliance members in too many places: Virgin would clash with ANA on flights to Tokyo, with South African Airways on flights to Johannesburg, and with United-Continental to the US. It is hard to see where Virgin could complement Star’s existing operations, and in any case Singapore Airlines seems disillusioned by Virgin’s latest travails and may divest its shareholding.

Of the world’s two other alliances, oneworld is dominated by British Airways and is therefore not an option, so SkyTeam may be Virgin’s last hope. Two years ago, Sir Richard appointed Deutsche Bank to scrutinise a potential deal with AirFrance-KLM and Delta, SkyTeam’s chief members, but talks failed when the Virgin boss demanded a substantial annual fee for the licensing of the Virgin brand. This time, he may have no choice.

For SkyTeam, the benefits of a tie-up with Virgin are obvious: it would mean a bigger presence at Heathrow, where Virgin holds a fifth of the prime early-morning landing slots. It would also let Delta, a comparatively weak player at Heathrow, tap into Virgin’s traditional strength on routes to the US and Caribbean. And with its planes full of connecting passengers once more, Virgin could afford to raise its fire-sale fares which, net of taxes and surcharges, are currently as low as £70 for a London-New York round trip.

Sir Richard will need to tread carefully, though. The Virgin brand needs jealous protection if it is to go on attracting consumers to other Virgin businesses like trains, mobile phones, and space travel. But Virgin Atlantic also needs a real tie-up if it is to survive, and this may force Sir Richard to reduce or even relinquish control. He has been boxed into such corners before, still bitterly regretting the forced sale of his treasured music business in 1992.

In any case, Virgin Atlantic’s future has wider repercussions. Britain depends heavily on its aviation links to the wider world, and politicians’ minds remain exercised by the country’s need to improve connections to new markets beyond Europe. As Britain’s second-largest long-haul airline, carrying about 6m passengers a year to 34 destinations, Virgin Atlantic is an important asset. It has genuinely improved competition in the British airline industry, and also pioneered routes to places like Shanghai. Britain should care about its future, though the carrier’s legendary promotional abilities mean the public is largely unaware of the crisis behind the scenes.
 
All'Ecomunist, come lo chiamava Feltri, l'han fatta un po' troppo tragica: se è vero che un bel po' di connessioni sono sparite con la fine di bmi (che nn e' stata pagata £173m) e' anche vero che i pax di VS hanno continuato a connettere con BA e altre compagnie.
 
BGW ha detto:
L'Economist scommette su un ingresso di Virgin in SkyTeam... stento pero' a vederne l'utilita' per VS sinceramente.
Interessante il passaggio in cui si afferma che il 25% dei pax di VS a LHR originava da bmi...

Virgin Atlantic
Desperately seeking
Dec 3rd 2012, 11:18 by C.S.


VIRGIN ATLANTIC is stuck in a rut. The airline’s latest annual results showed a pre-tax loss of £80m [$128m] and it recently saw bmi, a key partner, snapped up by arch-rival British Airways. Sir Richard Branson, Virgin’s billionaire founder, may well be distracted by grand projects like space tourism, which he hopes to launch next year. But for now he needs to focus his attention on his airline.

Sir Richard’s pride in Virgin Atlantic’s independence means that the airline has consistently refused to enter one of the world’s three air alliances. It teamed up instead with bmi, which flew Scottish and European passengers to London Heathrow, where they could transfer onto Virgin’s long-haul services to destinations further afield. This arrangement worked almost too well: by 2010, about 25% of all Virgin passengers came from bmi. That was a lot of eggs for one basket, but Sir Richard gambled that Lufthansa, bmi’s owner as of 2009, would never sell to British Airways, a mutual enemy. His gamble failed. Lufthansa sold bmi to British Airways for £173m in April and the cosy arrangement with Virgin died.

At a stroke, a quarter of Virgin’s passengers vanished. Insiders report a steep fall in ticket sales to non-US destinations, while managers are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to fill seats—the latest, “Seat Plus”, implores customers to guarantee themselves more personal space in economy class by booking two seats instead of one.

More sensibly, Virgin has resolved to build its own short-haul network: from next spring, it will fly to Heathrow from Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen in an effort to feed traffic into its more profitable long-haul flights. But building a short-haul network from scratch at Heathrow, where take-off and landing slots are so scarce that they change hands for millions, will be tricky; and replicating the extensive reach of bmi’s network will be impossible. In October, Virgin was denied the right to fly to Moscow, and there is still no sign of a promised route to Nice.

So analysts think that Virgin might finally be forced into promiscuity. Joining an airline alliance would give the carrier instant access to its partners’ customers and perhaps even give it the traffic necessary to launch routes to more cities in emerging markets—something that excites Britain’s business lobby.

Since Singapore Airlines, a Star Alliance member, owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic, some think Star is Virgin’s most likely bedfellow. But Virgin’s route network overlaps with those of existing Star Alliance members in too many places: Virgin would clash with ANA on flights to Tokyo, with South African Airways on flights to Johannesburg, and with United-Continental to the US. It is hard to see where Virgin could complement Star’s existing operations, and in any case Singapore Airlines seems disillusioned by Virgin’s latest travails and may divest its shareholding.

Of the world’s two other alliances, oneworld is dominated by British Airways and is therefore not an option, so SkyTeam may be Virgin’s last hope. Two years ago, Sir Richard appointed Deutsche Bank to scrutinise a potential deal with AirFrance-KLM and Delta, SkyTeam’s chief members, but talks failed when the Virgin boss demanded a substantial annual fee for the licensing of the Virgin brand. This time, he may have no choice.

For SkyTeam, the benefits of a tie-up with Virgin are obvious: it would mean a bigger presence at Heathrow, where Virgin holds a fifth of the prime early-morning landing slots. It would also let Delta, a comparatively weak player at Heathrow, tap into Virgin’s traditional strength on routes to the US and Caribbean. And with its planes full of connecting passengers once more, Virgin could afford to raise its fire-sale fares which, net of taxes and surcharges, are currently as low as £70 for a London-New York round trip.

Sir Richard will need to tread carefully, though. The Virgin brand needs jealous protection if it is to go on attracting consumers to other Virgin businesses like trains, mobile phones, and space travel. But Virgin Atlantic also needs a real tie-up if it is to survive, and this may force Sir Richard to reduce or even relinquish control. He has been boxed into such corners before, still bitterly regretting the forced sale of his treasured music business in 1992.

In any case, Virgin Atlantic’s future has wider repercussions. Britain depends heavily on its aviation links to the wider world, and politicians’ minds remain exercised by the country’s need to improve connections to new markets beyond Europe. As Britain’s second-largest long-haul airline, carrying about 6m passengers a year to 34 destinations, Virgin Atlantic is an important asset. It has genuinely improved competition in the British airline industry, and also pioneered routes to places like Shanghai. Britain should care about its future, though the carrier’s legendary promotional abilities mean the public is largely unaware of the crisis behind the scenes.
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VS dentro Skyteam ha senso se si realizza quello che la stampa economica americana dice da giorni e cioe' che Delta sia in trattative avanzate per comprare il 49% di Virgin Atlantic in mano a Singapore Airlines. Infatti Singapore Airlines pare voglia disfarsene e Delta voglia creare alleanze ulteriori sul settore transatlantico e diventare forte ad Heathrow, l'aeroporto piu' "business" d'Europa. Nell'ottica di Delta e Skyteam avrebbe molto senso, considerando anche l'altro hub gestito da DL a JFK (altra capitale finanziaria) e l'enorme network americano che DL aprirebbe per i cs di pax Virgin...

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/12/04/delta-air-eyes-bigger-slice-ny-london-travel/

Cito FoxNews non per scelta, ma semplicemente perche' sono stanco ed era il primo articolo che mi salta nei risultati di Google (l'articolo economico che avevo letto non poteva essere distribuito), ma comunque e' su tutta la stampa americana in questi giorni...
 
Posto qui :

[h=1]Virgin Atlantic S13 Operation Changes as of 14DEC12[/h] by JL
Update at 1310GMT 14DEC12

As per 14DEC12 GDS timetable and inventory display, latest changes to Virgin Atlantic’s planned Summer 2013 operation, effective 31MAR13, as follows. Additional changes remain possible.
London Gatwick – Barbados eff 03MAY13 VS029/030 operates with Airbus A330-300 instead of Boeing 747-400 on Day x4
London Heathrow – Accra Airbus A340-300 operating, replaces previously planned A330-300. Service operates 5 times a week
London Heathrow – Boston Airbus A330-300 replaces A340-300, daily service
London Heathrow – Manchester NEW 3 daily service will be operated by A320 aircraft, instead of previously planned A319
London Heathrow – Washington Dulles Airbus A330-300 continues operation in S13, replaces A340-300 in S12
Previously reported changes:
London Gatwick – Cancun Service increases from 2 to 3 weekly
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Finita l'era Ridgway - Dopo 11 anni nominato nuovo CEO per Virgin Atlantic

Lo posto qui:

Virgin Atlantic Names U.S.-Born AMR Executive Kreeger as CEO

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. appointed Craig Kreeger, a 53-year-old American, as its chief executive officer, four weeks after Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) agreed to buy a 49 percent stake in the U.K. carrier.

Kreeger, who takes over on Feb. 1, joins from American Airlines, where he is a senior vice president, and replaces Steve Ridgway, who said in September that he would step down this year after running Virgin Atlantic since 2001.

The new CEO has the experience needed to tap opportunities created by the Delta deal, which will see the carriers operate a joint venture on 31 daily flights between the U.K. and North America, billionaire Branson said in a statement. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Kreeger has worked at AMR Corp. (AAMRQ) for 27 years in commercial, financial and strategic roles, according to Virgin.
“Sometimes it can make sense to have a fresh pair of eyes from the outside,” said Douglas McNeill, an analyst at Charles Stanley in London. “One of Virgin’s weaknesses is it’s quite U.K.-dependent and perhaps this is an acknowledgement that they need to be building up the brand in the U.S.”

Southern Stays

Julie Southern, 53, who was seen as an internal candidate for the CEO post, will remain chief commercial officer.
“She will continue to spearhead the work to implement our joint venture with Delta,” spokeswoman Anna Catchpole said.
Kreeger, who previously spent six years in London as AMR’s senior vice president, international, will need to get the Delta relationship “up and running as soon as possible,” as well overseeing Virgin’s move into short-haul flights, McNeill said.

A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, who also holds an MBA from UCLA, Kreeger also worked on American Airlines ventures with British Airways (IAG), Virgin’s chief rival at London Heathrow. He is currently senior vice president, customer, at Fort Worth-based AMR, a post he took on last year.

“He’ll be taking over at a time when the airline enters a new phase, with the Delta deal to implement, the commencement of short-haul competition for BA on U.K. domestic routes, as well as the arrival of the 787 fleet,” current CEO Ridgway said of his replacement, who he’ll assist until the end of February.

Ridgway has spent 23 years at Crawley, England-based Virgin, during which time the carrier grew from two Boeing Co. (BA) 747s to a fleet of 40 long-haul aircraft that will include the U.S. manufacturer’s latest 787 Dreamliner from summer, 2014.
Atlanta-based Delta agreed on Dec. 11 to buy the stake in Virgin Atlantic held by Singapore Airlines Ltd. since 1999 for $360 million, tapping the U.K. carrier’s strength at Heathrow airport, Europe’s busiest hub.

AMR is currently reorganizing under bankruptcy protection and expects to reach a decision within weeks on whether to merge with US Airways Group Inc. or remain independent, CEO Tom Horton said Jan. 3 in a memo to employees.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...ts-american-air-executive-kreeger-as-ceo.html
 
Virgin Atlantic molto vicina all'ingresso in SkyTeam:

Virgin Atlantic is assessing its alliance options, with SkyTeam emerging as the likely fit given the UK carrier’s new relationship with Delta.
Late last year, Delta announced plans to acquire Singapore Airlines’ 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic. As part of the deal, Delta and Virgin Atlantic are planning to launch a cost and revenue sharing joint venture on flights across the Atlantic.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Virgin Atlantic COO Julie Southern has given the clearest indication yet that the two airlines could also become alliance partners. “I suspect in due course you may see us joining SkyTeam,” Southern said.
In an official statement, Virgin said: “Joining SkyTeam is not a condition of the joint venture with Delta, although Virgin Atlantic is evaluating its options in this regard. The airline has always kept alliance membership under review but has been clear that it needs to be in the best interests of the business.”
atwonline
 
londonfog ha detto:
VS in Skyteam con DL sarebbe una vera concorrenza con BA/AA. Chissa' cosa succedera a United su LHR Stati Uniti ?
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Gia' ora con la JV con Delta cambieranno un po' di cose. L'unico dubbio e l'unica pecca, per me, sono che VS non ha connessioni UE degne di questo nome, se non qualche C/S e prosecuzioni su BA, e non so se VS sara' nella JV atlantica che DL ha con AF, KL e AZ.
 
Non sono le connessioni europee che interessa a DL , ma VS come player sul ricco mercato premium di LHR dove era un nano tra i giganti ed ora cambia invece completamente tutto.
La JV sarà (almeno per il momento) DL e VS only; quindi sarà una ex novo.
 
vce145 ha detto:
Non sono le connessioni europee che interessa a DL , ma VS come player sul ricco mercato premium di LHR dove era un nano tra i giganti ed ora cambia invece completamente tutto.
La JV sarà (almeno per il momento) DL e VS only; quindi sarà una ex novo.
Clicca per espandere...

Facciano come credono, ma gli aerei dal lato UK van riempiti...E VS da sola, senza prosecuzioni, e' zoppa.

Mi stupisce davvero che la JV non sia comune. Cosi' DL ha due JV in ballo! In SkyTeam se la intendono bene, vedo.
 
Certo che i rapporti di KL con DL sono peggiorati esponenzialmente dopo la fusione con AF!
 
vce145 ha detto:
Non sono le connessioni europee che interessa a DL , ma VS come player sul ricco mercato premium di LHR dove era un nano tra i giganti ed ora cambia invece completamente tutto.
La JV sarà (almeno per il momento) DL e VS only; quindi sarà una ex novo.
Clicca per espandere...

Si era palesato che la UE e il DOT avrebbero potuto avere qualcosa da ridire se VS fosse entrata nella JV Atlantica di ST.
 
13900 ha detto:
Facciano come credono, ma gli aerei dal lato UK van riempiti...E VS da sola, senza prosecuzioni, e' zoppa.

Mi stupisce davvero che la JV non sia comune. Cosi' DL ha due JV in ballo! In SkyTeam se la intendono bene, vedo.
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Anche a me stupisce che la JV non sia comune. Anche perche' la JV Transatlantica attualmente non copre tutti i voli che attraversano l'Atlantico (e quindi anche i voli DL verso LHR)? Che fa ora DL, separa questi voli per metterli nell'altra JV con VS?

Seaking ha detto:
Immagina quanto questa cosa stia influendo sulle relazioni AFKL-DL.
Non volano coltelli, volano mannaie...
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Scusate un attimo, ma non era AF quella che si era messa a fare i voli LHR-JFK qualche anno fa in concorrenza a BA/AA? E come e' andata a finire 'sta storia? Adesso si ritrovano addirittura estromessi dal ricco mercato di LHR che sara' appannaggio della JV DL-VS?
 
Seaking ha detto:
Immagina quanto questa cosa stia influendo sulle relazioni AFKL-DL.
Non volano coltelli, volano mannaie...
Clicca per espandere...

Sticazzi. Gia' AF-KL non sono quel miracolo di unita', figurarsi ora!

Dr Gio ha detto:
Scusate un attimo, ma non era AF quella che si era messa a fare i voli LHR-JFK qualche anno fa in concorrenza a BA/AA? E come e' andata a finire 'sta storia? Adesso si ritrovano addirittura estromessi dal ricco mercato di LHR che sara' appannaggio della JV DL-VS?
Clicca per espandere...

Mi sa che e' andata male, perche' non ho mai visto AF con niente di piu' grosso di un 321 a LHR.
 
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