So A Quiz - Which EU Based Flag Carrier Is Weakest in Its Home Market

So let me be specific.

Which European based airline that is a legacy/flag carrier is weakest in its home market? For many years this used to be KLM.

So lets use the metrics that we know and love - I will cheat and use the share of scheduled flights. This means that there is a considerable amount of capacity that is not included in our search - but lets press on.

Lets start with the 5 top markets to simplify matters:

These are for originating traffic:

UK
Germany
Spain
France
Italy.

1. Lets now look at which airlines enjoy a dominant position in that market - IE 50% of total capacity. Answer? Just one - Air France (excluding KLM).
2. Now lets look at which Flag carriers are bigger than their low cost rivals. Answer all but the UK where BA is now relegated to second place behind Ryanair. Indeed at just 17% it is the lowest market share of any airline.
3. Where do all LCCs form bigger than Legacy airlines? Add Spain and Italy although Spain doesn't really count because New Vueling is mostly controlled by Iberia.

Still this is an interesting trend!!!

If we look at the next tier of markets (12 in all) then the numbers have the same characteristics, so for the following markets:

Norway
Greece
Netherlands
Switzerland
Sweden
Portugal
Ireland
Austria
Finland
Belgium
Denmark
Poland

1. Of Flag carriers only one has a Flag Carrier rate higher than 50% (Finland)
2. Countries where Flag Carrier is smaller than one LCC alone (Ireland - Ryanair, Greece - Aegean, Norway - Norwegian, Poland - Wizz)
3. Countries where Flag Carrier is smaller than combined LCCs (above plus Sweden)

Fun to think of this right? Oh yes the answer in case you missed it was BA.

Cheers

Source OAG Max w/c 7 Sept 2009.