BA-KLM renew talks about future co-operation
British Airways and KLM, the Dutch national airline, have renewed talks about future co-operation less than nine months after they abandoned negotiations on a merger that would have created the world’s biggest airline by turnover.
KLM said the contacts were about “alternative forms of co-operation. The regulatory environment does not let mergers happen, but there could be other forms of co-operation.” The airline was also having discussions with a number of other airlines.
“The aviation industry is going to consolidate, but it is facing too many complications today,” said someone close to KLM. “BA remains one of the most, and probably the most, attractive merger partner.”
Rod Eddington and Leo van Wijk, the chief executives of BA and KLM, had spoken “quite recently,” BA said. It insisted there were “no merger plans on the table at the moment.”
Last year’s merger negotiations were abandoned after nearly four months, when no agreement could be reached on an ownership structure that would give BA management control while protecting KLM’s international traffic rights out of the Netherlands.
The renewal of contacts between the number one and number five carriers in Europe comes as BA tests the regulatory climate for another attempt to secure US and European antitrust immunity for a joint venture with American Airlines, its partner in the Oneworld alliance.
Mr Eddington and Don Carty, chief executive of American, are to meet Norman Mineta, US transportation secretary, in Washington on Monday.
The two carriers would like to gain antitrust immunity to allow them to share profits and revenues, to co-ordinate schedules and pricing, and to code share (or sell seats) on each other’s transatlantic services and the networks radiating out from their respective US and UK hubs.
Financial Times
