VS interessata ancora a BD anche dopo open-skies

[SQpps]

Virgin Atlantic Airways, the U.K. carrier controlled by billionaire Richard Branson, is still interested in acquiring BMI after an ``open-skies'' agreement with the U.S. was approved by the Europe Union yesterday.

``We've always said that we remain interested in acquiring BMI,'' Paul Charles, a spokesman for London-based Virgin Atlantic, said in an interview today. ``In the light of open skies, in a few years time there may be more consolidation.''

Virgin Atlantic held unsuccessful merger talks with the Derby, England-based carrier in 2003. The open-skies deal allows European Union airlines to fly to the U.S. from any of the bloc's nations. It will also scrap rules letting only Virgin Atlantic, British Airways Plc, American Airlines and United Airlines fly between the U.S. and London's Heathrow airport, Europe's busiest.

``It is up to BMI to decide on its future structure and strategy,'' said Virgin Atlantic in an e-mailed statement. ``In the meantime, Virgin Atlantic continues to watch developments involving several airlines in the industry worldwide.''

Combining Virgin Atlantic's long-haul network with BMI's short-haul flights would boost the number of transfer passengers carried and add slots at Heathrow for Virgin, he said.

An offer from Virgin Atlantic ``is something we're not interested in,'' Jo Tabberer, a spokeswoman for BMI, in an interview today. ``It's certainly not something on our radar. There are no talks going on.''

The move to open Heathrow to other airlines may increase the value of takeoff and landing slots at the airport, where BMI owns about 13 percent of the spaces, second only to British Airways' 41 percent.

[Steman]

Sarebbe un matrimonio perfetto, visto che BD e' molto presente a LHR.
Tuttavia i portavoce di bmi hanno fatto sapere di non essere affatto interessati all'offerta di Virgin, ma si sa, in queste cose le chiacchiere contano davvero poco!

Ciao

Stefano

[SQpps]

è da mo' che se ne parla... ma credo che LH e SK (detentori di stake in BD) nn vogliano rinunciare a passeggeri nei propri hubs

[Steman]

VS potrebbe chiedere a SQ, che detiene il 49% delle proprie azioni, di mettere una parola buona con LH :-)

Meglio che in una soap opera!

[SQpps]

io dico la mia cazzata....
secondo me VS potrebbe fare un po' di roba con SQ usando i gateway europei di SQ per gestirne le prosecuzioni

[Steman]

Scritta cosi' sembra la trama di un pornazzo! :-D

[SQpps]

la Vergine Atlantica.... ecco il titolo :P