Possible Emirates and Etihad Merger

[Zulaiha]

Ever since Qatar been banned flying over Saudi air, both Emirates and Etihad been taking the advantage of raising their fare out of Saudi especially Dammam.

If this plan is ever going ahead, I will not surprise that people move to Saudia, Turkish and KLM to get in and out of Saudi. The price will becoming horrific to even consider them?

Edit to add: maybe BA will have more passangers out of BAH

 

[Berlin]

I've read that talks are still in "preliminary stage" but they always are until the final decision is officially announced. Time to prospect on what this means for the Emirates as a hub. How would they split operations between DXB and that shiny new terminal in Abu Dhabi? And is then REALLY still another, yet bigger airport at Dubai World needed smack in the middle between those two? Or, given the Emirates' known preference for gigantic solutions, could they possibly connect all three with some fast train to form one huge Giga-airport?

 

[NM]

I definitely agree in respect do EK reigning supreme, but I'll have to respectfully disagree regarding hubs being made redundant with point to point transglobal flights.

My personal opinion is that both will live on and thrive - point-to-point transglobal flights will be successful, as will the continuation of large regional hubs.

It is only practical for the transglobal point-to-point flights to address part of the routing demands. If there is not a P-to-P option for where I need/want to travel, then I am going to need to transit somewhere and a large regional hub will still provide more options and potentially better economies of scale

 

[bsb]

Wonder what this would mean for VA? And the QF EK lovefest? Someone’s going to leave the party crying...

 

[Berlin]

Wonder what this would mean for VA? And the QF EK lovefest? Someone’s going to leave the party crying...

Something tells me that it will be VA who's crying. Etihad has a history of leaving its "partners" crying...

 

[AIRwin]

Something tells me that it will be VA who's crying.

May there be a knight in shining armour to the rescue of the virgin damsel in distress!

 

[Ansett]

Perhaps it will become Virgin Australasia ,,,,

 

[AIRwin]

Perhaps it will become Virgin Australasia ,,,,

Or Virgin Pacific?

 

[Happy Trails]

Or verging on irrelevance?

 

[NM]

May there be a knight in shining armour to the rescue of the virgin damsel in distress!

Perhaps it will become Virgin Australasia ,,,,

Or Virgin Pacific?

Or as it would be a sad situation, perhaps Virgin Blue?

.... oh, yes, I know ...

 

[serfty]

So EY are gong to give away their 21% ownership of VA for nix?

 

[moa999]

Perhaps it will become Virgin Australasia ,

18 years old.
Time to lose the Virgin tag.

Along with Branson's small ownership (and the big annual fee)

 

[Must...Fly!]

So EY are gong to give away their 21% ownership of VA for nix?

Liquidation to a willing buyer one would presume...

 

[stm1sydney]

Or, given the Emirates' known preference for gigantic solutions, could they possibly connect all three with some fast train to form one huge Giga-airport?

That could actually work! They're only 100km apart so a proper VFT connecting "terminals" would provide a quicker connection than, say, SYD domestic/international connections. At 500km/h that's only 12 minutes.

 

[Ansett]

Perhaps if Emirates do merge with Ethiad then they will own a good share of Virgin and may end the relationship with Qantas who seem to be re-positioning themselves closer to OW partners at present, then there is Project sunrise and perhaps even more direct Perth to Europe flights reducing the need for the EK Alliance????

This would be great for Virgin who would finally have a good coverage into Europe and beyond.

 

[pauly7]

Perhaps if Emirates do merge with Ethiad then they will own a good share of Virgin and may end the relationship with Qantas who seem to be re-positioning themselves closer to OW partners at present, then there is Project sunrise and perhaps even more direct Perth to Europe flights reducing the need for the EK Alliance????

This would be great for Virgin who would finally have a good coverage into Europe and beyond.

Don’t Virgin already have good coverage with Etihad

 

[Ansett]

Not as good as it would be with Emirates

 

[Must...Fly!]

Don’t Virgin already have good coverage with Etihad

I would class it as good but not great. Certainly not close to EK.

 

[Himeno]

That could actually work! They're only 100km apart so a proper VFT connecting "terminals" would provide a quicker connection than, say, SYD domestic/international connections. At 500km/h that's only 12 minutes.

Sounds like Heathwick.