Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

But, that simply exposes us to a greater risk:
IMHO, shrinking is the most risky course we could take. Eventually we will run out of places to consolidate.
Originally Posted by ATW
At the heart of the matter is the rapid growth of the carriers of the Persian Gulf region with their deep-pocket state owners and global ambitions (ATW, 7/10, p. 5). To Assn. of European Airlines Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar represent a new type of competitive threat that is incompatible with the existing world aviation order. That’s the message he brought to the International Aviation Club in Washington recently.
The carriers, “two of which have never made a profit” (a reference to Etihad and Qatar), are “operated as an instrument of national strategy and integrated vertically across commerce, tourism and foreign policy,” he declared.
To their owners, Schulte-Strathaus said, they are “just a part—a tool—of this vertically integrated economic chain,” and they are “being driven by a policy which is not compatible with that of the US and Europe,” or “Australia, China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Korea and so on.” Furthermore, these carriers will take 425 widebodies over the next five years, more than are currently operated by the US major airlines.