EOS Airlines, which flew business class between NYC and London is shutting down today.
The CEO of Easyjet was interviewed by Reuters and said that some European discount carriers will probably soon disappear.
United is in talks to merge with Continental. American is in talks with USAir.
Does anyone think we need to change our ticket buying strategy?
To make matters more confusing, Continental is also rumored to be in negotiations with United, US Air, and AA. I guess they are looking to get out of their Sky Team alliance with Delta and NWA.
There isn't any need to change ticket buying strategy.
UA, CO, AA and US are all IATA bonded and any ticket you buy from them is backed by IATA bonding ( so even if the CEO of Continental changes his name to Loveflower Moonstone and runs away to an ashram in Katmandu with all the cash in the back office, you are still guaranteed to fly ).
As for the no-frills, discount, non-IATA airlines.... a handful of them call it a day every year. That's the risk anyone runs when they buy fares at those prices. If there's no IATA bond you lose all your cash.
That's the way it's always been. No change.
Yet another all-business class carrier from London to NYC fails. Seriously, this is about the tenth or so in the past five or six years.
What this tell us, at most, is that businesses aren't as willing to pay for premium fares but given the abysmal track record of all-business carriers I don't think its says that much.
As for mergers, United and Continental I could see, American and USAir not so much (American has some substantial issues it has to deal with internally first, such as the glut of older planes it needs to replace). Also, USAir was just recently the result of a merger, so methinks the feds won't look too kindly on it. Whereas, United and Continental, like Delta and NW, are strong in different areas of the country/international routes and so a match is easier to see.
No but some of us will need a new job strategy!
