Maybe Monday's are better - News Roundup

I thought I liked Fridays. Well this Monday is full of stories. So I will condense for the assembled masses with some commentary along the way.

1. Thomas Cook pulls out of German consolidation talks. So along with the patent's decision (or rather indecision) on its future the formation of a 3rd force in Germany looks set for the round file for a while. This in turn gives Air Berlin some breathing space to get its house in order. I shall be flying long haul on AB in 2 weeks - I will let you know what its like.

2. India - $1.5 billion market loss predicted by IATA out of $5.2 billion loss globally predicted for 2008. Bisignani is predicting a bloodbath for India unless a new regulator steps in. He could well be right. Already the premium paid for fuel in India is approximately 50%. The market is now experiencing negative growth (down 7.5% for the second half). This will impact not just the airlines but also the 4 major Online players in the market.

3. Kelleher calls for development of cheap 110-125 seater. Exhorting his "children" - Herb was waxing lyrically on two major topics. One was the regulation of ATC and the development of better processes and control in Europe. The other was the development of a low cost single aisle aircraft. Neither Boeing nor Airbus are keen to do this at the moment. More on this later when I have thought about it.

4. Low Cost Congress in London. Lots of news going on there - I hope to do a recap by the end of this week.

5. On Airline Bankruptcies... ABTN was calling for the CAA to learn how to be an Undertaker after the ludicrous handling of the XL failure. BTW Paddy says FlyGlobespan is next to go. Easing odds on Alitalia who has a respite until October 15th. I believe the CAA should be reformed and some of its functions divested. However I do agree with Malcolm that there needs to be a better handling of processes with regards to addressing big failures. The UK has not seen such a failure since the Court Line crash in the 1970s.

6. Pilot Charged with Mooning. A TransStates/United Express pilot was charged with being drunk and indecent behavior after he mooned traffic. The pilot told police officers he had an early morning flight, and he hoped the officers were happy because "50 people's flight would be delayed because of (Officer Dustin Cook, the arresting officer)," according to the news report. Makes you think carefully about flying on an RJ.

7. One of the big losers in the Wamu failure of course was TPG who saw their $1.5 billion investment wiped out. Looks like TPG will have a much harder time in raising capital for any major project. That means they will be sitting out on the sidelines for the foreseeable future. The impact on the BA -IB match up is yet to be determined.

There is more... but for now digest this lot!

Cheers