Rebuffing any thought of a possible tie up between the declining valued BA and the greater value but smaller Cathay Pacific - its CEO - Tony Tyler wasted no time is telling Willie, Martin and the boys (via the article in the Telegraph)that they were welcome as OneWorlders but no more than that at Cathay City.
In a battle of the top dogs, Cathay Pacific chief executive Tony Tyler - a Swire man - said his airline has no intention of merging with British Airways, which is worth half as much as the Hong Kong-based carrier. In an interview in the Telegraph , he said he does not agree with BA chairman Martin Broughton who stated in early January that the Oneworld alliance will fall apart if the BA tie-up with American Airlines fails. while Cathay has been hit by the recession and has cut capacity growth for 2009 from 6-7% to broadly flat, it is seen as being more profitable than its London based Alliance partner.
British Airways hopes for a partnership now seem to be looking a tad thin. The Iberia merger is all but dead - killed by the free fall in the pound and the poor British Carrier's performance, Qantas and BA never made it past the first date despite having been engaged and almost married successfully before. With the new Obama Administration in power - the prospects for a tighter alignment between AA and BA don't look quite so good unless Gordon and Barack want to make nice and Fly Mandy wants it.
Here is the full article - worth a read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/4402441/Tony-Tyler-plane-speaking-from-a-merger-sceptic.html
Cheers
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