Posts Tagged ‘British Airways’
BA closes JFK cargo operations
BRITISH Airways (BA) is to close its cargo operation at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York this summer.
According to a BA spokesperson, the move is part of the airline’s cost-cutting campaign and the 74 cargo employees, affected by the subsequent job cuts, were notified last November.
“Everyone knows that airlines have not been doing very well since the economic downturn, and that doesn’t exclude British Airways,” the spokesperson said. “We’ve found that we can save a lot of money by outsourcing the actual handling of the freight, the taking it in from trucks and putting in on the airplane.”
British Airways is looking for a cargo operator to take over its JFK freight operations and expects to have found one by July.
“The cabin crew industrial dispute has nothing whatsoever to do with this particular move of shifting cargo operations,” the spokesperson said. JFK was the last cargo station still run by the airline in the US.
American Airlines woos China Eastern
AMERICAN Airlines is negotiating with China Eastern Airlines to have it join the Oneworld alliance.
Tom Horton, chief financial officer of American’s parent company, AMR, also revealed that American is also in talks with a Brazilian carrier to do the same (probably Gol Linheas Aereas Inteligentes, which began code-sharing with American last year).
“There are some opportunities for cost savings, though not to the extent one might be able to achieve with a full merger. You can cooperate in areas such as procurement, co-locate at airports.”
Horton said the reason for increased alliances rather than mergers was primarily due to restrictions on foreign ownership of US airlines of only 25 per cent of voting stock.
“It is an impediment to cross-border mergers,” he said. “I think we are seeing an evolution, seeing these alliances become tighter-knit partnerships. They started as loose marketing agreements, for code-sharing, frequent linkages, emergence of global alliance groupings. We are now seeing those groupings forming tight economic relationships.”
American Airlines and British Airways have just been given permission from the US government to cooperate with Iberia on lucrative trans-Atlantic services, after trying and being denied twice before.
