Virgin-Delta Merger

PLEASE tell me this isnt going to happen!

[Pete]

The only Google info I can get on this appears to related to a stalled proposal back in September for Delta to merge with Virgin Blue Holdings.

Seems like an odd marriage.

[Neil]

There is this on the Sky News website, but nothing really concrete.

We did have the bankers investigation starting a while ago.
Is this the outcome?

A slow news day and some journos catching up on a six week old story?

We did have the bankers investigation starting a while ago.
Is this the outcome?

A slow news day and some journos catching up on a six week old story?

well VS going in to the Sky Team has now been mentioned quite a lot recently, i don't think DL merging with VS would be good as VS would loose Independence but going in to an alliance (either sky team or the star alliance) would be good.

Star alliance would be preferable than skyteam surely and if they merge with delta they are stuck with sky team indefinately, bad move imo.

cheers

alex

Word is spreading, see here.

Ugh.

[Scrooge]

Let's clear up one thing, VS CANNOT merge with DL, US laws will not allow it, what they will allow however is for VS to join the DL/AF/KL ATI agreement.

Now, this would provide a tremendous amount of feed from the US side as was clear the last time DL and VS worked toegether, along with DL FF's snatching up every reward seat, however this was back when DL sucked and VS UC was at it's best.

I could actually see SQ's 49% being split between DL and AF, this would free up VS to do a lot of things.

Nor actually if I think about it could Delta outright acquire VS - isn't there something in the EEC rulebook about non-EEC ownership being capped at 49%? However, there would be nothing to stop AF acquiring a majority ownership in Virgin .... .

SkyTeam, hmmm, have never flown their affiliated airlines since they accrue no benefits. That would be a BIG change for VS loyal customers.

I have just scanned the a.net thread on this, which not surprisingly is booming as it mentions a US based carrier!

Firstly, I cant really see this being DL acquiring VS. I would imagine that it would be some sort of ATI to start off with (and would include AF/KL) as Dave said.

Secondly, we should not forget that BE is now in a very close partnership with AF. AS I mentioned in previous threads, BE would be able to provide VS with some pretty decent feed especially into somewhere like MAN (if VS decide to expand MAN). If there was an ATI between DL/AF/KL/VS then one would imagine that BE codeshare on BE flights would be included in some way.

I must admit that when the Skyteam rumours started a while ago I ignored it but standing back and thinking about it (as I echoed in a thread the other month) it really is a good match for VS and in a way alot better than *A. Many see VS as thinking its "bigger" than it is, if they were to join *A they would be a tiny little member, joining Skyteam offers the greatest chance for the greatest impact.

It is also important to remember the wider relationship of the Virgin Group of Airlines and Skyteam. If the aim of the Virgin hierarchy is to have all Virgin Group Airlines in the same alliance, then Skyteam offers the most scope for this. There is already a relationship between VA and DL as well.

Then I could use my miles on Aeroflot, Fantastic y)

Iain

[Scrooge]

Only problem with that is BA owns 20% of BE, can't really see them letting BE feed VS.

Well, BE is in a good position - codeshare agreements with BA and AF already in place, so shouldn't really affect BA that much - except perhaps having BE perform strongly for them.

Only problem with that is BA owns 20% of BE, can't really see them letting BE feed VS.

True but then again you owuld not have thought that BA would have been too happy about BE coupling up with AF in a way that hints heavily towards a possible BE/Cityjet/VLM future merger.