Trade war retreat a massive boost for Boeing
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By Alex Lennane
Now it’s clear why British Airways has been so quiet about the Airport Commission’s recommendation that a third runway should be built at Heathrow. IAG CEO Willie Walsh does not want to pay for it. Calling the costs “outrageous”, he said the main issue was financing for infrastructure that was “not fit for purpose”. He added that BA had never thought a new runway would be built, and instead would hub through Dublin with its purchase of Aer Lingus. Delegates at the recent Runways UK event, however, speculated that IAG did not want to open up Heathrow to additional competition.
Comment on this article
Ed Kerwin
August 05, 2015 at 6:58 pmMy first reaction was also that IAG has changed strategy with hubs in MAD and soon DUB, it wants to maintain its LHR “fortress” hub and constrain competition there. Of course this would be more focused on the passenger market and leave cargo to continue to adapt to capacity constraints at LHR for the foreseeable future. IAG cargo seems to have adjusted its strategy in alignment with the passenger business by eliminating its own freighter services and adding incremental main deck capacity with blocked space agreements with QR and AY. With European cargo volumes suffering at the present time, it may be the best approach to get through a tough period and stay prepared for better market conditions.