Originally Posted by
RockyBoy
Can't it go both ways here? What about KLM outsourcing it's flying to Delta. I think we have gotten more flying from the AF deal than we have given them. If things go the way the politicians want, maybe we will all be one airline in a few years anyways and won't have to worry about outsourcing to AF and KLM.
The dutch are very sharp trade wise, they have very strong unions..I believe the only thing that would limit their additional flying would be aircraft. Varkdriver is correct, "open skies" is the holy grail for Europe, think about it how many places can you go in France or Netherlands...vs what they can do coming over here. AF may have made the merger, but it will be the Dutch that run the company.
The talking points will be: in these days of reduced revenue and economic hardships...it only makes sense to share with our partners, and we will recapture the flying after the economy gets better...when 2015? Once the flying leaves its very difficult to get it back, think about scope complaints and the connectors that has been talked about on this board.
I don't believe that the current political group wants one large airline, and hopfully will not relax the foeign ownership rules.