Adria to stay in Slovenian hands
The CEO of Adria Airways, Klemen Boštjančič, has denied media reports that Air India is interested in taking over the Slovenian national carrier. Boštjančič said that although he did meet up with Air India's management recently there was no talk of a potential takeover. “We discussed cooperation on cargo routes and the possibility of introducing passenger flights between the two countries”, he said. However, insiders from the airline say that the management wants to see Adria in the hands of the German national carrier Lufthansa. On the other hand, nobody wants to take over an airline burdened with debt. Adria offers the greatest number of flights to Germany from Ljubljana and Priština out of all of its other markets. It is a Star Alliance member, like Lufthansa, and feeds the German carrier with generous amounts of transit passengers.Klemen Boštjančič said that in order for Adria to survive it needs to open new routes, cut costs and get more business. In the first 4 months of the year Adria carried 306.993 passengers. As the airline celebrates its 50 years of existence with debt amounting to 100 million Euros it is not alone. Every single EX-YU national carrier is expected to finish 2011 with losses.
Which airline do you think should takeover Adria, if any? Send a comment.
Lufthansa, who else
ReplyDeleteLufthansa grrrrrrrr, how many airlines do they already own (or partly own) in Europe? Swiss, SN, Austrian, BMI..any else?! is Spannair still part of SAS? What about TAP?
ReplyDeleteFor Adria it would be good maybe TK?i wish Singapore airlines would take part but that's just my far fetched dream :)
I hope LH becuase at least management would be appropriate than =) for sure they would find their own people.
ReplyDeleteI am not an expert but I am working for quite long time in tourism. Adria should takeover Montenegro Airlines and should get status of national carrier in Kosovo,Macedonia and Montenegro. After this is done the next step is to create lowcost from secondaries airport througout Balkan with a help of exsisting capacities of ex yu airliners. I know a silly idea ;)
ReplyDeleteAfter this is done then it could takeover another airliner or merge together with OU and JU with a management of Lufthansa ;) AND WELCOME TO BALKAN SAS!
Air India is in no financial state to even operate its very own operations let alone purchase an entire carrier. The current management can make the carrier work without a doubt; it's just a matter of them actually doing some things that would allow for profitability.
ReplyDeleteYou all have a good point, Lufthansa does own quite a number of European carriers although the greater majorty are of German nations ie. Austrian, Swiss (50-50) etc. Not to mention Star Alliance carriers too. Can't wait to see how this pans out, just to add Adria's newly painted A320 in their retro livery was quite a suprise and nice to see!
Well, I think things are very clear. It's a political division that is made already long ago. The Germans want to control Croatia and Adria....the rest of the Balkans they have left for influence of their star alliance partner Turkish.
ReplyDeleteThe Drina river is the border for more than 2000 years, keep that in mind....
lufthansa the best airliner
ReplyDeleteAdria must start working according to the market rules or if not must close. Cuts of routes, personel, better management (hire foreign expert not from ex Yu area) etc are needed
ReplyDeleteLufthansa can easily cover profitable routes of Adria by herself. No need to buy Adria use it's leased aircrafts and so on.
I heard rumors,totally unconfirmed, that they want to fly SJJ to FRA
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if the deal with Lufthansa doesn't go through, Air France comes in and buys both Adria and Croatia. They are the only serious threat to Lufthansa in Europe. I am also happy that Alitalia is finally getting back on its feet, making the Skyteam Alliance an important player in the region.
ReplyDeleteFor Jat it would be the best to join the Oneworld team as they have rather poor presence in the region. Hopefully, with adding more modern aircraft to their fleet, Jat might one day qualify to enter this alliance and become once again a strong regional player. If anyone buys Jat, I wish it would be Qantas or Virgin...but again, that's probably going to stay only a wish :)
Cheers all
@ AirKoryo
ReplyDeleteI don't think Lufthansa is solely focused on owning the carriers in the german speaking countries. Look at what happened with BMI, Brussels Airlines, SAS is also waiting for their hand and they even have a big stake in JetBlue (the 2nd biggest low-cost airline in the US). German strategy is nothing new. First they kill all domestic competition or keep some around (Air Berlin), only, so they can tell EU there is no monopoly.
Second, they prevent their competitors from entering the German market (not allowing Emirates to fly to certain destinations).
Third, they take over their German speaking neighbors (Switzerland, Austria).
Fourth, they attack all other neighbors, take over their carriers (Belgium, Scandinavia, UK, Slovenia, Croatia) or make them suffer (Poland, Czech, Hungary, Greece, Italy).
And finally, the fifth, they attack over the pond (JetBlue).
Sonds familiar? What they couldn't conqour militarly during the 2nd WW, they are doing it economically now.
WOW, well done Adria, the retro livery looks very nice!!and a big surprise too :)
ReplyDeletehere it is, JP's retro :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?id=1927916,1927915,1927914,1927913,1928512
Adria, Croatia, Montenegro and JAT should unite and create a community EX yu carrier. We would have had over 50 aircraft with an agreement about the line, reducing the cost of missions,. flying personnel, and rationalization of the common lines to get the best carriers with cheaper maps, and only fleets except Jat old would be extra (Embrerer 195.175 Airbus A320, A319, Bombardier, ....)
ReplyDeleteThere is a future for the Balkan carriers.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?id=1927916,1927915,1927914,1927913,1928512
ReplyDeleteVery good Fleet for us on Balkan.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?cx=partner-pub-8297169501225184%3Aa05n2n-tzky&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=montenegro+airlines&sa=Submit&search_active=1&search=&sheadline=&search_field=datedesc&submit=&siteurl=www.airliners.net%2Fsearch%2Fphoto.search%3Fid%3D1927916%2C1927915%2C1927914%2C1927913%2C1928512
ReplyDeleteAnd this FLEET is for Respect too!!
@ Stojan Nis
ReplyDeleteDon't agree with you there is future for ex-Yu carriers.
First, because ALL of those carriers are completely controlled by criminal organizations called governments in each particular country, including Slovenia, which will NEVER accept to give up so BIG BUCKS which are flowing within airline industry, which is their main aim, not succesful carriers.
Second, because european BIG PLAYERS, mostly LH, would never let them do so, even if there had been good will for something like that.
Third, because those carriers are run by incompetent people who are not there to manage and to run prosperous bussineses, but to fulfill orders and requests given by governments (from first), and by big players (from second).
Four, because as you yourself say, one of the carriers mentioned has stone-age fleet
Five, because it won't be profitable to operate on that many different types of aircraft and from so many hubs, or bases
Six, because if any other or dominant hub system or aircraft type were to be chosen, it would be impossible to achieve satisfactory solution on bases of compromise with acclamatory acceptance from all those carriers
Seven, because it won't be possible without significant lay offs, predominantly for administrative, and changes in way of life for operational personnel, and such possible moves would be strongly opposed and "mined" by trade unions.
And so on, and so on...
However, you are right about one thing - people in ex-Yu definitely deserve ONE good airline. But in my opinion, it would be much much easier and cost effective to start a new one, instead to try to make on good out of 4, 5, or 6 lousy ones.
Especcially taking into account state of mind of people who run, and are employed by, majority, or all of the carriers mentioned.
I hate our governments. We would be better off without having one like Belgium :)
ReplyDeleteLufthansa group ownes:
ReplyDelete- Austrian (Austria) 100%
- bmi (United Kingdom) 100%
- Brussels (Belgium) 45% with right of priority for rest 55%
- Dolomiti (Italy) 100%
- Edelweiss (Switzerland) 100%
- Eurowings (Germany) 49%
- Germanwings (Germany) 100%
- Jede Cargo (China) 25%
- JetBlue (USA) 19%
- Lufthansa (Germany) 100%
- Lufthansa Cargo (Germany) 100%
- Lufthansa CityLine (Germany) 100%
- Lufthansa Italy (Italy) 100%
- Luxair (Luxembourg) 13%
- SunExpress (Turky) 50%
- Swiss (Switzerland) 100%
- Ukraine Internatinal (23%)
- Lufthansa Regional (Augsburg Airways, Contact, Dolomiti, Eurowings, CityLine)
In line for takeover by Lufthansa are (they ask for):
- SAS
- Blue 1
- Spanair
- LOT
- TAP Portugal
- Adria
- Croatia Airlines
A bit related to the topic: Turkish Airlines is in final round of negotiations to acquire 49% of Spanair.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-31/spanair-in-talks-with-turkish-over-investment-expansion-reports.html
There are two very interesting issues being discussed on this thread (and for a change, it's not nationalistic bravado! Bravo!): the role of the 'big' European carriers taking over smaller operators (Air France/KLM, British and Lufthansa), and the profitability of smaller airlines due to the breakup of exYU.
ReplyDeleteAdria would be a great acquisition for AF/KL and would also give SkyTeam enormous strength in Central/Eastern Europe - RO, AZ and OK are all struggling in different ways at present, and none properly covers Adria's geographic area. MA is likely to be taken over by BA/IB, if LH takes OU these 3 airlines roughly cover the same geographic area and markets...
As for the smaller airlines in each country, each could be successful *if* they were realistic with their operations, keep overhead costs low, and employ people with proper know-how (not govt stooges) in the upper echelons of these companies.
We all want to see diverse yet profitable airlines in the region, but need to be realistic about corruption, emerging markets and threats.
In the long-term, only JP and OU can survive in their current format, but whether they remain independent is to be seen!
Frequentflyer i completely agree with you, once for a change solely non-nationalistic comments, and with your broad picture of european aviation.i also agree that LH would not be the best buyer since they(and their airlines&partners) have alredy enormous presence in the region (almost every ex-YU airport is a star alliance fortress, exluding some charter and LCC oriented airports).So it would make much more sense for AF/KLM to be JP's buyer, and say AB/AY/BA (im not sure about financial situation of the latter) to buy OU, or vice versa.What do you think?I'm not an expert, just enthusiast :) Cheers from Ljubljana.
ReplyDelete@Sam
ReplyDeleteI don't really think LH has had a big impact on the Greek aviation industry, I mean Aegean and LH operate large codeshare operation and Aegean still has the strongest numbers on Greece - Germany operations.
The things is that LH has infact began taking over all the surrounding nations airlines, just like you've said! It is incredible actually. Although most seem to be Star Alliance carrier lets not forget.
@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteAB isn't strong enough to be buying out other airlines (apart from the Niki purchase which was primarily for charters), and is only to join an alliance next year. But AB really plays second fiddle to LH in terms of inter-German and international flights out of Germany.
The strength that JP offers is SkyTeam is a central European hub within the Schengen zone, political stability, and decent connections to most of the Balkans. You'll also be aware that the most flights each day from LJU is to CDG (JP, AF & U2), showing how important this connection is.
I somehow see OU remaining both in *A and eventually being bought out by LH simply due to their historic links - if it wasn't for LH back in '91 OU simply wouldn't be here today, and look at their maintenance, route choices etc to show where their absolute loyalties lie.
LH has just announced the elimination of its main deficiency - closing Lufthansa Italia. This is sad, because had they persevered with it I have no doubts it would have succeeded, but it was the long-haul market that was never capitalised upon. That fleet is to be absorbed back into the mainline, I expect that capacity increase will fuel further appetite for growth - the main question is "Who's next"?
I'd like to turn your question in reverse: which airport *should* become the non-*A hub? At present BEG is this, could the exYU cope with another long-term?
Puno pozdrav!!
JP already had good and strong connections with AF in the past (before engagement with LH). Since LH management stated that they would focus on consolidation existing airlines that they own and are not planning any new takeovers in the near future it will surely be interesting. Would definitely prefer stronger Sky Team presence in LJU.
ReplyDeleteTAP is on sale and even for profitable airline with huge South America network like TAP Portugal is LH stated that they are not interested. Even more interesting since there is LAN, Iberia+BA and AF+KLM fighting for South American share of the market.