Chris Avery Quotations

We're still in the early stages (of recovery). The market is still suffering from excess capacity on the North Atlantic.

The challenge will be to get the big corporate customers giving them their business, but it might be difficult in reality.

Second-home buyers should go into this with their eyes very wide open.

He's got the formula right. He's entering the market at the right time in terms of European liberalization and during a strong economy and he's entering with the right concept.

There is an increasing process of consolidation that's taking place around the industry. Globally, we've been seeing the buildup of these great alliances ... And I think outsiders have been expecting this in the U.S. domestic industry for some time.

It is clear that the revenue environment is stronger than anticipated and consensus upgrades are likely today.

It is something he will have to take constant soundings of and at the same time try and extract some productivity benefits from the Heathrow workforce.

It is interesting that people are trying to change the conventional methods,

I think one of the other medium-tier airlines, outside the big three, are going to be looking at their strategic operations quite carefully.

We are beginning to see the inevitable effect of a serious slowdown in U.S. growth washing over to Europe.

We have already had a sequence of downgrades from British Airways, Lufthansa has reduced its guidance once, and KLM has massively reduced its guidance,

Time is not infinite and the European Commission has banned further state aid.

There has been just enough activity on the big, new shiny aircraft front ... to keep both manufacturers feeling and talking very buoyantly about the future,

There's quite a bit of sense and synergy in putting them together.

The situation is still brittle, even though the Gate Gourmet dispute is nearly over and BA is back working. There remains the possibility things will erupt again.

The short-term threat from its balance sheet is no longer present, giving the management team time to implement their restructuring.

Other people in the airline are furious. That short strike has cost them a week's bonus.

A prolonged lack of catering would start to eat into premium. More important is the booking intentions of their best-paying passengers which is the premium cabins.

BA is strategically focusing on profitable traffic, and that means it's turning away a lot of people who are prepared to pay a decent fare to transfer,

BA is entering what we feel will be a tense six months for industrial relations as the pension fund deficit and the three-year wage deal come up for negotiation with the unions.

The big airline fights back with everything it possibly can,

That is obviously the most thorny problem. The situation is still brittle, even though the Gate Gourmet dispute is nearly over and BA is back working. There remains the possibility things will erupt again,

They will certainly have a role in the future of aviation, there is no doubt about it. People will prefer to fly non-stop if it is available,

So, arguably, if KLM and BA were to do something together, you could flow the transfer traffic over Amsterdam and just send the profitable traffic that wants to go to London to Heathrow.

But we are reaching the limits. These markets are at the very margin of aviation. (Most) airlines still fly in the eight to 12-hour sector. This is still where the biggest volume (in traffic) is.