BA boss Willie Walsh warns of airline closures: British Airways supremo Willie Walsh yesterday warned passengers that he expects a string of airlines will go bust this winter. Mr Walsh, the chief executive of IAG, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, said: “In Europe, there’s clear evidence of weak airlines struggling. The next wave of consolidation will see those airlines go out of business and disappear. Europe will see a number of failures over winter. There are small airlines, and some big ones, with very weak balance sheets and they will struggle to secure investment.” He said the teetering airlines would not all be minnows, adding “you’ll have heard of all of them,” and he named Alitalia as one that was “clearly in a very difficult position”. But he said IAG was not looking at buying any other European airlines. Speaking on board BA’s inaugural flight to Chengdu, China’s fifth-biggest city, Mr Walsh also attacked the Government’s lack of business leadership as he warned the UK was losing out over its “unwelcoming” policy towards Chinese tourists. “In China, the UK’s visa issue remains a major problem,” he said. “Not being in the [shared Europe visa scheme] Schengen means higher costs and bureaucracy for Chinese visitors.” Traffic at Chengdu airport has grown from 5.5 million passengers in 2000 to 32 million last year, and Mr Walsh said government policies were hampering the UK’s chance to capitalise on that growth. Source: independent.co.uk
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 06:08:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015