United Kingdom
United States
Asia Pacific
BA: Consolidation is needed
British Airways chairman Martin Broughton has called for an end to rules that prevent foreign ownership of US airlines.
While addressing an audience at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, Mr Broughton called for a relaxation in foreign ownership rules. Currently the maximum shareholding that an overseas carrier can have in a US-based carrier is 25%, while the equivalent figure in Europe is 49%.
Mr Broughton said: “It is encouraging to see US airlines and FedEx are calling for a change in the rules on foreign ownership.
“Glenn Tilton, chief executive of United Airlines said only last week that inconsistent regulation had stunted US airline competitiveness on a global scale and forced United to stand on the sidelines watching other major airlines merge to create super carriers.”
He added that consolidation, amounting to cross border mergers and acquisitions, was needed.
BA has long campaigned for a relaxation in the rules governing transatlantic flights and this latest statement has seen the Chicago Convention, which was signed in 1944, likened to Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Ginny McGrath
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