Going bankrupt in the United Kingdom is a whole lot different than in the US. Had Thomas Cook been based here, it would have most likely filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and tried to reorganize while still flying. But Thomas Cook is a UK company, and that means that …
It’s been a month since Air Canada and Transat announced they were in exclusive merger negotiations. Now the deal has officially been announced. Air Canada will pay C$13 a share — about C$520 million — to buy Transat. Approval from shareholders and the government is far from guaranteed, but …
Though it may not fit your definition of a blockbuster merger, the announcement that will be coming out in just a few minutes that Southern Airways Express is buying Mokulele (but keeping separate brands) is actually a pretty interesting one. On the surface, this might leave you scratching your head. …
It’s all rumor at this point, but Bloomberg reported last week that Emirates and Etihad are talking about a merger. This has been the subject of whispers for years, and that’s probably because it makes a great deal of sense. The problem is, there’s ego and politics involved. And …
Niki is an airline that I thought was dead long ago. In fact, it has a tombstone of its own in my Airlines We Lost 2017 post. But after a number of twists and turns, Niki has found an unlikely savior. It’s not really Niki anymore; it’s a vehicle for …
There was a big merger announcement last week, though admittedly it’s one you might have missed. Caifornia-based Surf Air came to an agreement to acquire RISE, a similar operation in Texas. There’s a good chance you still have no idea what I’m talking about. These aren’t large companies, and unless …
The long-awaited branding decision has been made, and as expected, Alaska will be retiring the Virgin America brand in the next couple of years. I had the chance to speak with Alaska’s Chief Commercial Officer and EVP Andrew Harrison as well as VP of Marketing Sangita Woerner yesterday about the …
For months now, Alaska has been preparing to acquire Virgin America, and yesterday it became official. Alaska now owns the airline, but the two are far from becoming one. The hard work to make that happens starts now. In the meantime, Alaska has shifted marketing direction in exactly how …
In what can only be considered a most unlikely and incredibly successful exit for Virgin America’s owners, Alaska has agreed to buy the airline for a whopping $2.6 billion in addition to assuming $1.4 billion in debt. I spoke with the folks at Alaska, I’ve done about a half dozen …
Airlines have been releasing their quarterly earnings reports over the last couple of weeks, and the results have been downright excellent. They’re all making money hand-over-fist, but not everyone is pleased. Wall Street, in fact, is not happy that the airlines are actually trying to compete with each other. That’s …
Ohayou gozaimasu, everyone! I’m back from a week in Japan and it was fantastic. Stay tuned for trip reports in business class on an ANA 787 and Suites class on a Singapore A380. Both were excellent, as you’d probably expect. But those aren’t ready yet. For now, let’s get back …
When it comes to airline mergers, there is no bigger single milestone from a traveler’s perspective than the migration to a single reservation system. After that point, all reservations are in the same place and under the same airline code. It’s really when the other entity stops existing from a …
