THE SENIOR management at British Airways (BA) is astounded at the amount of adverse reaction stemming from the airline's intended alliance with the major US air carrier, American Airlines (AA), according to Kevin Hatton, m.d. of BA's World Cargo.
With words like anti-trust and monopolistic practice being loudly exclaimed by opposition to the planned inter-airline agreement, Hatton is dumbfounded at the amount of hypocrisy amongst the critics.
It's not as though it's a merger, or a full-scale takeover, he added. There is no share swap, Hatton told FTW during a visit to Johannesburg. It is purely a commercial agreement. BA has gone through the whole gamut of alliances in recent times, with Hatton highlighting the local example. Airport ticket counters in the domestic departure halls display notices proclaiming: British Airways - operated by Comair - with cabin staff in BA uniforms welcoming the boarding passengers. This, Hatton added, is all designed to allow us to offer complete air travel packages to the market, and improve the overall efficiency of our product. The Comair franchise example on the domestic scene can then be joined by a number of BA's regional alliances, where a minority shareholding is taken as part of the deal - with the 25% BA share in Australian carrier, Qantas, being one noticeable example.
At the other end-of-the-scale, Hatton told FTW, you have BA's outright takeover of airlines like the French TAT and Air Liberte in recent times.
But when we make an agreement with AA, and with utterly no shareholding involvement, everybody starts shouting, he said. Why? The KLM/ Northwest Airlines alliance has created no reaction from the regulatory authorities.
We believe totally in level playing fields. And, as long as certain European governments are funding national carriers to the tune of GBP7-billion (almost R54-bn) a year, we don't think it's fair play when so much noise is made about two airlines attempting to be profitably competitive against these subsidised airlines. Hatton has just visited this country to officially launch a major extension to BA's cargo handling operation - with cargo playing a vital role in the airline's overall profitability on world routes. World Cargo, for example, contributed over GBP560-million (R4,3-bn) to the BA group revenue last year - carrying over 680 000 tons of freight, mail and courier traffic to 500 destinations in more than 100 countries around the world.
